THE ENGLISH WORKERS AND PREFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13324, 2 November 1906, Page 8

THE ENGLISH WORKERS AND PREFERENCE.

vr Sir Vr T^ C c ° U tearing accorded to Mr Mac Donald, M.P., as a distinguished i visitor is truly colonial, but his utterances ' are open to criticism. His statement " that there is no fear of low-priced competition 111 England is contrary to common knowledge, like much that emanates from the Clarion. Certainly such fear obtains everywhere in England and in the colonies, else why unionism and drastic laws? Mr. MacDonald has no sentiments re a Mother Country and her colonial offspring. Goods made m Germany" and those made in Britain or the colonies arc all the same to Mm. He would give no preference to the importation into Britain of Now Zealand butter over Siberian, because lie fears it would lead to a general protective nolicv. burcly some protective laws are good, and that is where sound judgment is needed, ihe law compels the foreign maker to mark all goods sent to Britain with the name of the country of production to protect the local maker from low-priced imitations and to give the buyer a preference. Some time ago a trader in New Zealand tried to import foreign goods of this class as of local make. but. he had to remove the mark "made —'' and substitute "made -

in—." Mr. Mac Donald says preference is unsound because it leads to protection and that the workers' principle is free trading. He is manifestly wiong, for the " colonic" prefer to encourage local industries and to protect them as they need, hence the call (sometimes unreasonable) for increased duties on some articles as a protection from low-priced competition. Old colonists know of industries that were protected in their infancy that now flourish independently. The Government even now are aiding local productions by the tariff. The many producers in tho factories are good customers for our land productions—a mutual benefit. The ultra free trade idea if put in operation would be disastrous; Mr. Chamberlain's proposals commend themselves, for they would bring into practical operation a mutuality that is desirable because of the relationship. ! Edwin- Carr.