THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1895.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9927, 17 September 1895, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1895.

The storm that has followed on every attempt of the Government to touch the tariff must by this time have made Ministers rue the day on which they were tempted to not leave well enough alone. It is not asserted that the tariff was " well enough" in the sense of being perfect; but it was well enough to have allowed the Government to glide along in peaceful seas and to avoid the buffeting which it seems to have to encounter just now from every point of the compass. If it were not for the serious effects of these disturbances on commercial interests there is something laughable in the frantic efforts of the Treasurer to make himself agreeable to everybody, every plunge he makes only making matters worse than before. The amiability with which at every turn of the tariff Ministers hasten to assure their opponents and supporters and the country in general that they are prepared still to alter anything and give up everything if only told what is wanted, ought almost todisarm the most malevolent enemy if there is such a person in the country. It is the most accommodating Government in tariff matters that ever was known in the colony, and if after submitting three or four other tariffs in addition to the three which have already been agitating the colonies during the past few months, something to please all is not found, nobody can say that any blame can be cast at the Government for not trying. The only thing to be feared by it is the fate of the man in the fable, who in trying to please everybody pleased nobody, and lost his animal into the bargain. It is difficult to say what the tariff will be before it is ready for adoption, but tho passing phases in its progress are very disturbing. Yesterday we noticed the uprising of the fruiterers and the traders in South Sea Islands commerce, and the excitement in that quarter is spreading as leading citizens and the people generally realise the disastrous effect the proposed action of the Government would have on the interesting Island trade. Now another storm has gathered from a different quarter,' and manufacturers and traders in boots are bringing every influence to bear in the endeavour to arrest the intentions of the Government in relation to their particular interests. Some of the results suggested in another column by those experienced in the trade are of such a singular nature that one feels it difficult to understand how the Treasurer could have made

such a blunder. Certain articles of humble were ye to be increased to over threefold\£heir present selling value by a specif duty, which is not even professed -'tAhave for its object the production oi-the same class of article in the colon\ A cheap kind of slippers is to be increased in selling value nearly fourfold., A poor woman's shoe invoiced at 3s\nll have to pay 2s tod, or nearly 1(A per cent, of duty; while her s\ter colonist, who is better off, aij affords to buy shoes invoiced at 5s Id, will have to pay only Is 3d, .op per cent. This left-handed way of piloting the interests of the poorer classes could only havfibeen adopted by a Gove A men that had . given no attention to\he situation created, or been blindly \riven by interested parties, more particularly a Government that is regarded a pluming itself on its solicitude J\r the interests of the working classes a\d the poor. Like the shot in one o\ the earlier tariffs aimed at the maker»and wearers of flannelette, this ill-direted bolt has struck the very classes who\re the least able to bear excessive taction, and were it not that we may ha© every hope that the Government wii start back in affright when the mischiei it has done is shown to it, as it did in the case of flannelette, we might fear, that 'the less opulent classes of the people have a bad time in store for them. But our sympathy perhaps is more due to the supporters of the Government in the House, who having bound themselves to answer to every crack of the Ministerial whip, must have a singularly unpleasant time of it in backing and filling according to every change in the tariff, bound of course as they are to support the Government, whether right or wrong, yet being the recipients the while of sheafs of telegrams from their affrighted constituents, appealing to them for protection from ruin. The action of the Government in relation to the fiscal system of the country is so eccentric, that it is impossible to foresee the possible outcome. We have the singular picture of all the manufacturers of boots and shoes in the district, with one exception, praying by petition to not have the import duty increased, while a great body of the most influential representative citizens are praying that the position of fruit in the tariff be left as' it was. The readiness of the Government to have its ways and means pulled about to suit every force of pressure applied, might almost tempt one to think that excitement is wasted, for that the Government will do everything that is nice in the end for all interests. But the blindly reckless way in which the Government is plunging, surprising friends and foes alike, and leaving no one with any assurance as to what the next change may not bring forth, hardly allows the public to rest with complacency as to all things coming right in the end. As a picture of governmental and administrative weakness, the case is quite unparalleled in this if not also in any other of the colonies. But it is that very weakness that constitutes the chief danger and it is apparent that it is only sustained vigilance that will prevent the country, in the present temper of the Government, from being led into what may be a disastrous position for some of its most valued and important interests.