CORRESPONDENCE.
DOES PBOTECTION PROTECT? | ro the Editor ov " The Evbkino Mail." Sir,— The following passage ocours in " four editorial of the 4th ult :— " But how s l :ould that colony (N.S.W.) logically Maintain an import duty, especially on ?' .vheat, while it has a yearly enortago for " lome consumption, a shortage whion was lot overeome even during the four years t£ nterregnuin of theDibbß tariff and two ™ roars thereafter, before the duties were ™ emoved. The position of N.S.W. was *' imply that the consumer, after buying £ 6 ,U the wheat grown in the colony at ™ irices based on the import tax, had to be my the rest of his requirements from aE tnporters at prices' also based on the tax." °° t was a surprise, therefore, to read in M our issue of 80th under the heading. P°
lAn objeot lesßon to Prbfceotidnia'rs, • a totioe dated 29th of. 100 tons of wheat, rom N.S.W., imported to Auckland, and hat future large shipments were conlemplated. To whose benefit, it may be veil asked, will this operate as it certainy will not cheapen oar bread, but will Jog our markets for the home producer j md at 4s the bushel will take over £700 rat of the colony as we hare nothing to 'sell of exchangeable value ".to our )ldei' and better established neighbours, who are able (see the market rates) to undersell us in everything. Could anything be more suioidal for us than to continuo this 1 And yet this is what my friend J. t'ipor advocates, and in • 3uoh unmeasured teems as to imply that whoever differs from him must be either a, knave or a fool. Had he ever been a producer instead ot only a' consumer, his praotical experience would have ma-' terially affected his views on the subject. Hia letter, 23rd Feb., runs thus— "We apply the simple principles of free trade in our daily dealing with the inhabitants of the same street, or the same town or the same district. We buy and sell uncontrolled by Government. We go further, we carry out these principles in our dealings with Auckland in the north, Dunedin in the south, and Wellington in the centre of N.Z. No custom house stands between us and them. If this is an advantage to all, it requires no elaborate reasoning to prove that it would be equally advantageous to trade on the same principles with our kin across the Tasman Sea in Australia. And wherever the sun shines upon a nation with something to sell of exchangeable value, the same principle must hold good." Prom this it will be seen that the gist of his argument is in this last sentence, and that as we have not this " something to sell " that would meet the wants of our neighbours, tho argument fails altogether of application to us. But there is a wider view to be taken of the subject, inasmuch as free trade would open our market to importations from all other countries where labour was the cheapest. Let us suppose, in consequence, what in a large measure would ensue, that all our clothing, boots, upholstery, ironmongery, etc , were .supplied from out3ide sources, what would >ecome of all our operatives engaged in these trades ? All expenditure on imports unless paid for by an equivalent of homo products would be a drain upon our ' resources that would bear directly on the working classes and indirectly through them on nil others, excepting the importers and those living on fixed incomes, and would increase the unempolyed difficulty that has already raised the estimate for charitable aid to £10,000. The following incidents may serve to illustrate the above. An outsider was complaining of having to pay 15s for boots which elsewhere cost only 7s 6d. The reply was, suppose yourself a settler engaged in some local industry and your son the bootmaker; what then ? Woiild it not be better to keep all the money in the colony with the prospect of the half coming baok to you for what you might supply than allow the 7s 6d to go elsewhere without a chance of seeing it again ? , The remark was made lately by a person interested in the progress of Nelson, that it would have been a good thing now for the place if tho Webley wool factory had been supported, as Griffin's biscuit business had been ; but he overlooked the fact that as thero was then no protection success could not have been ensured as it was to the interest of importers of ready-made clothing, etc., that the business should prove a failure. A visitor, an old business man, recently inspecting our several wool factories felt constrained to express his surprise to those concerned that, seeing there was sufficient wool produced in the colony to furnish employment to the majority in it, they should allow any of it to be sent to be worked up at Home for return at double cost. With " more to follow " in my next, Yours etc. HEAIi THE OTHEB SIDE. [In letter of 2nd April for 700 read 1700, and for 1100 read 11,000.]
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Bibliographic details
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXII, Issue 82, 7 April 1898, Page 2
Word Count
851CORRESPONDENCE. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXII, Issue 82, 7 April 1898, Page 2
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