THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1895.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9890, 5 August 1895, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1895.

It is so far satisfactory to see that the Government has bowed to the storm raised by its treaty and tariff proposals, and that even at this stage intimation is made that in part these will be abandoned. With regard to the Canadian enterprise, however, let it not at all be supposed that the withdrawal of the exemption on timber, rough and manufactured, would be the end of the trouble in the timber trade. It is to be borne in mind that the Government still proposes to pay £20,000 a-year in subsidy to a line of steamers for conducting a trade with Canada; and what that means may be gathered from the results of the trading between Vancouver and Sydney during the past two years. In that case there was a subsidy of only half our proposed amount, " and in addition there was a duty in New South Wales on imported timber nearly equal to that at present existing in New Zealand. Yet in spite of a hostile tariff the timber from the forests of British Columbia has been poured into Sydney by the subsidised steamers, which— sustained by the subsidy coupled with that from Canada—have been carrying timber at such nominal rates as to cut out the few sailing vessels previously en gaged in the trade. In the summary of imports and exports by the Warriraoo and Miowera which we published about three weeks ago, based on examination of thecargo lists at Sydney, there appeared, as imported for the period then reviewed, 82,023 pieces or logs of timber, 61,147 bundles of pickets, 11,860 packages of shocks, over 26,000 bundles of laths, and other quantities of lumber, these constituting with salmon the only considerable trading done by the subsidised steamers. The New South Wales duty all the time was Is 6d per hundred feet dressed, and 3s per hundred feet in the rough ; but this had no effect in preventing the Canadian lumber and woodware from pouring into that colony, owing to the absurdly low freights at which the cargo was carried from the Canadian coast by steamers receiving £10,000 a year from the colony, and £25,000 a year from Canada. In fact the timber can be loaded in the Vancouver waters at such a low rate, and well subsidised steamers can carry it at so low a figure that the question of a few shillings a hundred feet duty is a mere bagatelle. It is not the remission of duty therefore that our timber interests have to concern themselves about, but the fact of £20,000 a year being paid by the taxpayers of New Zealand for carrying foreign timber to our markets virtually for nothing.

What is true of timber is equally so of canned salmon. There is a duty on fish imported into New South Wales, of a penny a pound. Yet, in face of that the Canadian salmon was poured into the market — 28,330 cases and 18?8 barrels of salmon, exclusive of other

fish, in the enumeration mftde, JEydn if the New Zealand duty of 10s per cwt. on fish is retained, it will not have the smallest effect in preventing the New Zealand markets from being flooded with salmon, caught so cheaply by low-? priced and Chinese labour, packed at a minimum of cost, and borne to our shores at nominal rates, by steamers employed by the Government for £20,000 a year. Of course if the duty on Canadian fish is removed, as the Government is reported to be still intending, then our fishermen may burn their nets to save themselves from a heartbreaking and hopeless struggle. The tariff question in relation to Canadian imports is hardly worth contending about. What the interests threatened and the public generally have to consider is, whether it is a wise thing for the country to subsidise a line of steamers that seem calculated to prejudice so many interests in the colony, without the possibility of creating any trade that can, be of any benefit to the producing interests of New ZealandThis fact has been abundantly shown in the experience of the only other colony that has made the experiment, for after two years of trial by New South Wales, no trade with Canada has been developed, the experiments made by consignors having almost uniformly resulted in loss. Of course it stands to reason that it should be so. The productions and industries of the two countries, barring salmon and soft pine, are so nearly alike that no profitable interchange cap be made. Even the experimental export of what we may regard as a speciality of ours, preserved and frozen meats, was the most signal failure of all, one small cargo of 400 sheep from Sydney to Vancouver having as stated, in the published synopsis above referred to, incurred a loss of £80 17s 4d, and another of 520 carcases, producing a loss of £191 10s Bd. The idea of forcing a trade with Canada is only a fad, but unfortunately, a very expensive one. But the losses to adventurers repeating the experiments of New South Wales, and the loss in the annual subsidy will be a comparatively small thing compared with the paralysis it may possibly bring on some of our most promising industries.

The interest attaching to the treaties has been divided with the changes pro posed in the general Customs tariff of the colony, which have struck dismay into the hearts of the shirtmakers and bootmakers and others. But do people realise the fact that the greater part of the increases of taxation involved in those changes have been necessitated by these treaties and the subsidy to the Canadian trade? The Colonial Treasurer said so in his Budget speech. Referring to the South Australian treaty, he said, " We have had a careful estimate prepared of the probable loss of revenue to this colony during the first year's operations of the treaty, and I think I am within the mark when i state that it will not exceed £6000, an amount I have provided for in the estimate of the year, and I have left a considerable margin to spare in case my judgment should be at fault." And referring to the Canadian treaty, he says :— I should not expect to have to provide more than £5000 during the first year, as the result of the concessions upon the articles named which will be imported from Canada. I may in this respect be mistaken, and in order to ensure that sufficient is provided, I have, in estimating the finances, allowed for the amount being doubled if necessary." With this £16,000 and its "considerable margin" to make good, the Treasurer has set upon the revision of the tariff, with what results the shirtmakers and bootmakers and others can appreciate. But then, besides this, there is the £20,000 to be made good for the subsidy to the Canadian steamers, and the Colonial Treasurer has a scheme for raising the money that ought to be held in everlasting remembrance. For it is to be made up by the widows of the colony! It is in the Treasurer's now words. "In order," he says, "to prevent the concessions upon the duties between the two countries, and the proposed subsidy to the line of steamers between Canada and New Zealand being provided for out of our present revenue, I propose to make up from £10,000 to £20,000 per annum by a readjustment of the death duties." In elucidation of his scheme he shows that widows and widowers have never before in New Zealand been asked for legacy duty on what is willed by husband to wife, or wife to husband. But the necessity for providing for the valuable trade with Canada, and for subsidising the Canadian steamers is so great that widows and widowers must pay duty to the aggregate of £20,000 a year on what has been left them respectively by their deceased spouses. As women bequeathing property to their widowed husbands are the rare exception, it follows that this amount will in the main be raised by the widows of New Zealand, who will henceforth, and for the first time, pay legacy duty on everything left to them by their dying husbands, so as to make up enough to maintain the subsidy to the Vancouver service ! It is rather an ill-omened start for the trade with Canada to make, and it will damp our enthusiasm in connection with the coming and going of these steamers when from time to time we think of it that the service is maintained by toll extracted from the widows of New Zealand. It might not be inappropriate to suggest that, in the circumstances, the steamers should enter and leave our harbours with streamers of crape flying from their mastheads, in compliment to the bereaved women who will be supporting the service. ■