TWO VIEWS OF PROTECTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume V, Issue 268, 31 December 1870, Page 7

TWO VIEWS OF PROTECTION.

IN ITS FAVOR. At a recent meeting of the committee of the Auckland Protection League the secretary stated that he believed much misapprehension existed in the public mind with regard to the League, and asked for a clear and simple enunciation of the views entertained by and the objects of the League. The following questions were proposed, and the subjoined answers given :—- Q. Do we propose to increase taxation I A. No, but to effect changes in favor of the producer and manufacturer. Q. What changes are proposed 1 A. Ist, The total abolition of dixties on such commodities as tea, sugar, coffee, rice, plain calicoes, linens, and other materials and products which cannot for the present be produced here. 2nd, The imposition of duties upon all materials, products and manufactures which are or may be with advantage manufactured or produced in New Zealand. Q. Do we seek any other assistance 1 A. Yes; bonuses, grants, and aids to the establishment of new industries. Q. What 'will be the effect of this policy 'i A. It will encourage enterprise, check importations, give greater security to those willing to embark in manufactures, and keep much money from being sent out of the country. Q. Then how will the laboring classes be affected by such a policy 1 A. Favorably. The cost of living will not be increased ; but employment will be much more plentiful. Q. What action shall we take at the coming elections ? A. We give our votes and influence to such only as will pledge themselves to support our views as here enunciated.” AGAINST IT. We take the following from a recent copy of the Australasian : “ The horse-leech hath two daughters, crying * Give, give,’ says the Book of Proverbs, and protectionists all over the world emulate the rapacity of the horseleech’s offspring. It was so in England, and it is so in the United States and in Victoria. In a weak moment the head of the present administration, when the chief of a former government, surrendered his convictions as a free-trader, and yielding to the clamour of the least instructed portion of the community, consented to make protection the basis of our fiscal policy. 4-S a matter of course, that concession has led to

increased demands for protection. The tariff which was to exclude British and Foreign merchandise, to keep all the gold in the Colony, to diffuse universal prosperity, and transform Victoria into afool’s paradise, lias disappointed the expectation of its enthusiastic partisans. It lias not repealed the laws of nature It has not dotted the country with manufactories, covered our mountain slopes with vineyards and olive gardens, nor “ scattered plenty o’er a smiling land.” Therefore the disciples of Colonel iSibthorpe, assembled in public meeting at bt. Patrick’s Hall, have insisted upon the imposition of additional and heavier duties. When Mr Lazy Loon experiences what he calls “ a sinking,” he has recourse to a nobbier of brandy, to remedy the inconvenience. The relief is only temporary. . In fact, the stimulant increases the evil it is intended to allay. Whereupon Mr Lazy Loon takes double the quantity of brandy, and takes it twice as olten. By persevering in this system of counteracting the “ deplorable depression ” from which he suffers, he eventually succeeds in landing himself in a fit of delirium tremens, under the influence of which he cuts his throat, or puts an end to his life, by hanging, drowning, or poisoning. He has protected himself out of existence, just as America has protected its mercantile marine off the face of the ocean. If, on first experiencing the “ sinking,” Mr Lazy Loon had gone to a respectable physician instead of to the dram shop, and had been advised to work hard, eschew stimulants, and obey the natural laws of hygiene, he might have been a prosperous and happy man. And in like manner, if every description of industry were left to start, and sustain itself in the bracing atmosphere of healthy competition, and if shallow-minded, and short-sighted politicians would only bring their minds to believe that God’s laws are infinitely wiser and better than anything which colonial sages are capable of devising, we should not witness the hutnilia:ing spectacle of a room full of people looking for more protection and talking childish nonsense about an “ alarming decrease in the circulating medium.” There was a protectionist once, JEsop tells us, who when his bullock dray got bogged, flopped down in the mud, and implored Jupiter to extricate it for him. The answer which the god made is still on record, and we recommend it to the attention of the friends of protection.— Australasian.