FREE TRAE AND PROTECTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14345, 15 April 1910, Page 3

FREE TRAE AND PROTECTION.

Sir,—l thank you'for the space allotted me in your ably and impartially conductcd paper. This is my lot shot, as I am returning to 1115 home in New South Wales, after spending three months in Auckland. L will come again if I live. The correspondent I now wish, to criticise is the man who reiterates an old free trade exploded fallacy, namely, "That the country that imports more than she exports shall be th& richest. At that rate, New Zealanders should cease exporting butter, and send cash for anything they want to import. But how could they import anything when' they first came to New Zealand poor men, without. first of all exporting some things that would pay for those things they wished to import. If their exports continued to bo less than their imports, would not the LOll don merchant refuse them credit in the end, and probabh come over and seize their island for the debt? The proposition that it is imports, and not exports, that make us rich is so glaringly false 'that. I need give but one other illustration. America, with her great grain fields, exported much and imported very little. Ilence, she was able to become rich by getting back gold instead of goods. It is by much exports and less imports that you may the speedier pay off your national debt. It takes a longer timo to make the people open their eyes to the fallacies they are hugging than the puppies' nine days' blindness. I do not pretend as a protectionist that protection can be as good for England as it will bo to the new terri torics of tho Empire.. Those new territories liavo all adopted the policj that ihey pre confident is beet, for them. Every year will be adding to the greatness of the row lsi;ds with vast empty spaces. England must not hope to keep on growing in. the same r&tio, so that she in the end will be the least of all her dependencies. Yet, she and they may hang together as one great Empire if she (England) adopts the policy of her children beyond the seas. By doing so, the Empire can hang together for ages. By not doing so, it will go to pieces. Mr. Chamberlain se£s this, and lie is a more farseoing statesman than any other Englishman. John* Flanagan. unbar, N.S.W. - ■ .