THE COMMONWEALTH TARIFF.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1511, 14 February 1901, Page 66

THE COMMONWEALTH TARIFF.

(“N.Z. Times,” January 6.)

The most momentous question which the Parliament of United Australia will be called upon to solve at an early date will be : What is to. be the fiscal policy of the Commonwealth? Already the fighting over the shibboleths of freetrade and protection has begun. The moderate announcement of the Hen. S. Barton is being virulently assailed by the Hon. G. H. Reid, a former P render of New South Wales. Many partisans have entered the lists, and the fiscal campaign is assuming considerable proportions. It DiuS’t be admitted that Mr Reid is making progress in the promulgation of freetrade principles. He is a popular orator and presents his arguments with convincing force, lie may be justified in concluding that the prospects of his cause are much brig than most people imagined, but ii

somewhat rash to assert that if the freetraders of New South Wales give him a fair majority in that State there wiii be a majority of freetraders in the Federal Parliament. The success of his mission may have exaggerated his notions of the final result. His campaign has evoked much enthusiasm, and it maybe that the divided sections of the freetraders in New South Wales have become solidified ; but it is nevertheless possible that New South Wales herself will favour a “moderate" tariff, as proposed by the Federal Premier.

What is calculated to modify the views of even the supporters of Mr Reid in the Federal Parliament is the fact that eight and a. half millions must be raised by the Commonwealth Ministry. Face to face with such needs in the way of revenue, the Ministry will also be confronted with the necessity for granting such protection as wTI be adequate to save certain industries from extinction. It is all very well for Mr Reid to ask his audiences to declare either for “freedom or monopoly - ’; but when the worker reflects that Mr Reid, while proposing to abolish Customs duties and thus allow the cheap productions of Europe to compete with Australian made articles, does not suggest an increase of the land or income tax, another aspect of the question will present itself. To abolish the Customs duties in Victoria, or to reduce them to what the freetraders in that State call “an ad valorem duty of ten to fifteen per cent/’ would probably have the effect of closing half, if not three-fourths, of the manufactories in Victoria. The situation! is a difficult one, and the problem is not to be settled by Mr Reid in an hour’s oration, amid the plaudits of freetrade partisans. Having regard to Australian trade, it would require an indiscriminate tariff of fifteen per cent, to raise the necessary revenue for the administrative needs of the Federal Parliament. But to tax all imports to that extent would be absurd, so that while some will be free others will have to carry imposts of from fifteen to twentyfive per cent, before the necessary muds can be raised.

Such a revenue-raising tariff would meet with the acceptance of the more moderate of freetraders in New South Wales, although among the extreme protectionists of Victoria it would be severely criticised. However, it seems that the conditions of the Commonwealth will not permit of other than a moderate tariff being adopted at the outset, whatever amendments or alterations may be made subsequently. It will probably be the duty of Mr Barton to copy Mr Seddon’s example and institute a “scientific adjustment” of his proposed tariff. The settlement of the fiscal policy of Australia is matter of considerable interest tci the people of this country. It is desirable that there should be freetrade between the various States of the Commonwealth, and it would be advantageous to New Zealand were a reciprocal tariff in operation between this country and the Australian States. There ought to 1 be no insuperable difficulties in the way of establishing such a tariff as would facilitate and increase our trade with Australia. V T e could surely afford to place Australian products on! a reduced tariff if the Commonwealth was prepared to return the compliment. The adoption of a reduced tariff affecting our trade with Australia might lead to the extension of the principle to the trade of every part of the British Empire. At all events, this is an aspect of the case that ought not to escape the notice and consideration of producers, merchants, manufacturers and statesmen both here and in Australia.

Bieliard Marshall, landlord of the Falcon Publicliouse, Ponder's End, for diluting beer t-o the extent of six gallons to a 36-gallon barrel, was fined =£lo and costs. The world's population uses 2,500,000 glass eyes a year.

Boring with a diamond drill costs, on an average, 3s a foot; 5600 ft is the recosjd depth reached. There are 1700 hotels in Switzerland, and the receipts of the hotelkeepers amount to ,£5,000,000 a year.