New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4119, 2 June 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1874.

At tlie most recent dinner in London of tho members of the Cobdon Club, the Hon. D. A Wells was the principal speaker, and his speech, which has been printed in pamphlet form, is well worthy of the attention of all persons interested in the welfare of Now Zealand. Mr Wells held the position for many years of Special Commissioner of tho Revenue of the United States, and, therefore, had peculiar opportunities of watching the incidence and results of tho form of taxation tho people were determined upon submitting to. Necessarily, whether there be an analogy between the American system of dual Government and onr own, or not, tho taxes that are productive of certain results in the one country will act in the very same way in another ; and when Mr. Wells tells ns that the protective policy of America has resulted in “nothing but failure and disaster,” we are justified iu suspecting that it would have the very same effect if it wore tried here. He charges it with being a “diminution of abundance, a premium on scarcity, and a restriction on growth;” and if ho were able to substantiate his allegation, protection is about the last visitor we ought to wish to see on these shores. This has been the burden of his lay for several years past, and because the evil times ho predicted came not, very probably some persons may have looked upon him as a dreamer or a false prophet. But, as he explains, although the mills of the gods grind slowly they grind sure ; and this recently received telegrams corroborate. Thera has always been an appalling amount of distress in some of the lower quarters of New York, and when we are told 40,000 men are anxious to emigrate to England, and that emigrants are officially warned not to proceed to the. United States, we may he quite assured that the failure and disaster Mr Wells predicted have overtaken the benighted disciples 'of those protectionist apostles Greeley and Carey ; the latter of whom actually wished tho Atlantic was a wall of fire to prevent communication between America and tho old world, and rejoiced in the death of Cobden, because he might have visited America, and converted some protectionists into freetraders. The motto of the club, “ Free trade, peace, and goodwill amongst nations ” breathes the very opposite spirit to that which actuates Mr Carey. Mr: Wells went to the club armed with some figures that should have a very convincing effect upon those who have to earn their bread By manual labour, whether skilled or unskilled. He had tables ' compiled showing the price of twelve articles of provisions in 1860 and in 1873, all required by families, and by these he showed that the average increase in value in the latter year was 92 per cent. Then he had tables showing the current rate of wages in the two years of eight classes of artisans, and he found the increase in die latter to be exactly 00 per cent. By these it will be seen that whilst necessary provisions had advanced 92 per cent, in value, the rate of wages had only advanced 00 per cent, and consequently the workmen were actually giving their toil for 30 per cent, leas wages in 1873 than in 1860, although they appeared to be receiving more money. This Mr. Wells demonstrated by another table. He assumed that a family of four would require a certain amount of twelve commodities he enumerated, and ho calculated how many days’ labor tho workmen iu the eight trades would have to give to purchase this quantity, first in 1860, and then in 1873. The result was that on an average they would have to give lOh more days’ labor in the latter year than in the former, to purchase tho given quantity of provisions. And, whilst this was tho case, £IOOO would actually buy more luxuries —wines, precious stones, perfumery, articles of ornamentation, Cashmere shawls, etc. —in 1873 than in 1860. The result of tho fiscal policy of tho United States had been, iduring the thirteen years mentioned, to render tho rich richer and the poor poorer—to increase tho means of enjoyment for the rich and to enhance the poverty of the poor. This might bo illustrated hearer homo. The mining population of Victoria wore very anxious to have what they called protection, and tho boon was conferred upon them. Upon every article of consumption or clothing that passed through the Custom House a heavy duty was imposed. This, of course, had the effect of equally raising the price of all such articles that were produced at home. In reality, although they could not see it, they thus effected a reduction in the purchasing power of tho gold they raised. If the price of the commodities they required advanced 25 percent., the £4 which the miner received for each ounce of gold ho raised only bought tho same quantity that £3 did before tho halcyon days of protection. Tho shopkeepers did not take tho profit, but this went to the native producers, if there wore any, or to the Crown in tho shape of Customs duties. Wc say native producers, if there were any ; but there is no occasion to reason upon any such hypothesis. World-wide experience has shown that protection does not create manufacturing industry. Mr. Wells says that “in place of becoming industrially independent, there has never been a time like tho present, when the people of tho United States were consuming so much of tho products of tho skilled labor of other countries, and exporting so little of their own. Tho total value of tho exports of tho United States increased in tho twelve years, from 1860 to 1872 inclusive, 176,000,000 dollars, but of this increase all but 6,000,000 dollars was referable to six items—breadstuff's, coin and bullion, provisions, leaf tobacco, petroleum, and lumber —products three-fourths of whichxopiosent the gifts of God, and tho other one-fourth labor of tho most unskilled and poorest paid description. And of tho other six millions, one-fourth

stands to the credit of the single article of sewing machines.” Notwithstanding the protective duty of from 50 to 150 per cent, upon woollen grods, the proportion of the people in the States who were clad in woollen fabric of foreign manufacture was never so groat as at present. Owing to the heavy duty on imported steel and iron the cost of relaying the rails on a Chicago railway had been 2,000,000 dollars in excess of what it might have been, thus entailing an annual tax for interest of money of 100,000 dollars. Mr Wells said ho would challenge any American to cite one branch of industry which had prospered through protection ■in any other sense than the tropical vine prospers at the expense of the tree upon whoso trunk it clambers and twines, simply to paralyse and destroy it. Surely ho was justified in describing protection as “a selfish and pagan principle.”