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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4233, 14 October 1874, Page 2

TiIEKE was a Colonists’ Protection League established in Auckland, at which a few very amiable but politically-misguided gentlemen were in the habit of holding forth on the necessity of shutting out all kinds of imports in tho interest of. producers. They were, to a man, practical agriculturists, and contemptuously ignored the laws of supply and demand. And now we have tho outcome * f the efforts of tho Colonists’ Protection League, in the following paragraph from the New Zealand Herald.— “Wo are making the most extraordinary efforts to introduce the ova of the trout into our rivers, without any certainty whether when they are hatched there will bo the kind .of food to support them. Wo spend money in introducing birds and animals belonging to distant countries, all of which may ho very right and proper. But we -appear to make no effort to stimulate the supply of fish food which is native to onr waters in such variety and abundance. Within the last six or eight weeks meat has advanced in price from twopence to threepence per pound. Dairy produce is fifty per cent, higher than it was at this season last year. Vegetables are scarce and dear; hut while our waters swarm with fish, and there is a large demand for all kinds, a dozen or so ,of baskets is all. that the boats will fill of a morning. And now fish, from the circumstance that no one enters upon the business of taking it in anything like largo quantities, has advanced a hundred per cent. Tho anomaly of all this is that wo are sending to distant 1 colonies for our potatoes, to adjoining provinces for our butcher’s meat,

and to alien countries for the ova of strange fish, while we altogether overlook what should constitute our home wealth in these essentials of life.”

The Dunedin newspapers object to public funerals, and for some time past they have published articles on the subject. It is difficult to account for the way men cling to the absurd and expensive method of burial in fashion in the colony. It is at once expensive and repulsive to good taste. Following up previous articles on the subject, the Otago Daily Times, in a recent issue, has the following remarks; — “ It will be seen by our telegrams, published in another column that a Funeral Keform Association has been started in Adelaide, and that the chief object of the members is to ‘ abolish scarfs, hearses, mourning coaches, and refreshments at funerals.’ This is a matter that has been dealt with by the Press at home and in nearly all the colonies, and we are sure that the majority of sensible men and women have long since come to tiie conclusion that, looking at the matter from a common sense point of view, there is no reason why we who live in the nineteenth century should perpetuate the folly of an extravagant expenditure on black crape, feathers, and professional mourners, by way of showing to the world our grief at the loss of a deal''relative or a valued friend.” We trust the Funeral Keform Association at Adelaide may be successful in effecting its object. Should public opinion in South Australia support it thoroughly, the example will doubtless be followed in this and other colonies.

Some little time ago we drew attention to the efforts made in Canada to resuscitate the Reciprocity Treaty wibli the United States, whereby there was free trade across the border in some forty products that were produced in both countries. Congress, it would aj)pear by the most recently received newspapers, has closed without the subject having received much attention. Two commissioners had been appointed by the Canadian Government to confer with the leading statesmen in the States, and their report—written in the language of protection—the Saturday Itcview amiably insinuated, because it is customai’y to speak to children in the language of children, received the approval of Lord Derby. It contained, said The Times, “ very interesting and apparently conclusive evidence of the great advantages which the United States had derived from the former Reciprocity Treaty. The effect in Canada of the abrogation of the treaty was to give a new and vigorous impulse to measures for the consolidation of the Dominion and for the construction of independent connection with the Atlantic. The aggregate foreign commerce of the provinces, indeed, fell in the first year after the repeal of the treaty from one hundred and sixty million dollars to one hundred and thirty-nine millions. But the trade speedily began to recover, and the balance of trade is now in favor of the Dominion. The only doubt as to the wisdom of this line of argument is suggested by the two commissioners themselves. THe question, they say, 4 naturally presents itself, how comes it that, having prospered so well since the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, Canada should now seek for its restoration.’ Their reply is simply that the population of the United States is forty millions, and that of the Dominion only four millions, and that it is of the utmost importance to Canada that common interests and mutual goodwill should exist between the two countries. The people of Canada, it is said, are not ignorant that a market near at hand is better than a distant one ; and, good as their present markets are, they would gladly have the old one in addition.” But, said the Morniny Post , “if the treaty were to be concluded to-morrow, so far from its putting an end to heart-burnings and recriminations, it would seemingly give rise to bitterness and dissatisfaction.” Such is the lame and impotent conclusion that an endeavor to induce two great nations to have untrammelled commercial relations until each other has come to.

Victoria, which has gone in for a policy of protection, has long been opposed to assisted immigration. It is curious, however, that the agricultural classes and the Government are not at one on the subject. They find a difficulty in procuring labor, and are anxious to obtain it. The matter has been brought under the notice of the National Agricultural Society, and it is proposed that if the State will not, the society should, encourage immigration, by helping—with grants of land or otherwise—those who desire to immigrate. The subject is to be discussed, and brought under the notice of the Government of Victoria.