Dally Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1887.

Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 4098, 30 December 1887, Page 2

Dally Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1887.

Theke will be a fierce struggle in America over the proposal to reduce the wool duties, yet, there is every reason to believe that the President and the manufacturers will gain the day. If they do, Australia will have reason to rejoice. With the United States open to tbem, the wool growers of Australia would have their market so widened that new life would be infused Into their industry. They would no longer be solely dependent upon the British and Continental consumers, the fluctuations of whose businesses, consequent on political or social disturbances, periodically occasion serious depressions in prices, but would have access t? a market whose requirements are large and comparatively stable. There can be no doubt as to the opening that' exists in America for Australian and New Zealand wools. The manufacturers of that country have long recognised that the wools of their own country are of such a quality that, by the exolußlve use of them, their operations must be limited to a lamentable degree. So far as their Home trade is concerned, articles made of their own wool may answer well enongh ; for, where the introduction of the woollen manufactures of other countries is barred by a tariff that is prohibitive to the great bulk of the people, there is no competition of any consequence from outside to be feared in their own markets. But the American manufacturers, with all their appliances and their capacity for launching out in a foreign trade, desire to do something more than supply their own people. They want to compete with Continental manufacturers in the markets of the world. How to do this is the difficulty. It oannot be done unless American manufacturers have the same opportunity aB that possessed by the manufacturers of other countries of securing supplies of wool of all kinds from abroad. Without these kinds, whioh America cannot, or, at least, does not, produce for herself, notwithstanding the great necessity that exists for them, America's manufacturers are severely handicapped. They can manufacture certain kinds of goods, hut those kinds are limited in nnmber, and do not nearly satisfy the requirements of thote whom they long to make their customers. There is no alternative between seeing all the life knocked out of. the worthy aßpirationß of American manufacturers of woollen goods and admitting Australian wools at a duty that would not prevent their utilisation. We Bay we believe that the latter alternative will be adopted, The question is one of woolgrowers versus the whole people of America. The people will soon realise the fact, even if they .do not already realise it, that, in protecting a wealthy class, they are stifling an industry that is capable of unlimited extension to the advantage of the nation. However, the reform will not be effected withont a bitter struggle, and, jndging from the signs of the times, it may lead to a serious disruption of political ties. A writer in the North American Review recommends Senator John Sherman to the Republicans as the next President, on the ground that he will gain the votes of the woolgrowers, beoause he has served them well, and also because the united vote of the woolgrowers will put any good candidate in. But the direst opposition on the part of this class, who have so long enjoyed such advantages by reason of the tariff, may postpone, but it cannot avert, the issue of that great item which President Cleveland has had the courage to announce ai a part of his programme.