British Decadence.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7826, 28 September 1903, Page 2

British Decadence.

In an article in the Farmers' Adyocate based on information obtained from Mr Eider Haggard's reports on the condition of British agriculture, Mr J. G. Wilson gives an indication of what Freetrade is doing for the British agriculturist. He quotes the doleful census showing that in 1851 there were 1,253,786 agricultural laborers and shepherds "in Great Britain, and in 1891 only 780,707,

notwithstanding that during the interval the population had enormously increased. Mr Wilson says " the causes of this exodus are that much of the land has been laid down in grass which previously grew wheat, and that generally, although wages of agricultural labourers had largely increased, farmers had to dispense with hands, owing to the unprofitable nature of their calling." These facts show conclusively one of the results which the Freetrade fetish has had for the Old Country. Great Britain has allowed foreigners to swamp her ports with their produce, to undersell and to hara?s the producer off the soil, thereby converting his cultivations into waste places. The agricultural laborer has~ been driven into the towns or out of the country, with the melancholy result described in the military census returns published the other day disclosing a steady decline in the national physique. We can understand how, in face of facts such as these British statesmen realised with alarm what the true import of " a Freetrade nation in a world of Protectionists " really is, and we can, as" Imperialists, share their consternation and their desire for fiscal reform.