The Ohinemuri Gazetti AND UPPER THAMES WARDEN. "I will a round unvarnish'd'tale deliver" —Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 13, 1892.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume 1, Issue 9, 13 February 1892, Page 4

The Ohinemuri Gazetti AND UPPER THAMES WARDEN. "I will a round unvarnish'd'tale deliver" —Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 13, 1892.

If we wanted to sculpt a graven i:na^e of that fetish now almost univers ill/ worshipped'in Australasia, Protection, we should-shape out the figure of a shackled operative eating a dead sea apple, and promising the farmer and the miner, on whom he is standing, the core. The miner and the farmer might even be represented by one figure called the Producer. The two industries, in their relation to the Protection fallacy, are identical, &nd on them falls equally, by far the largest portion of the burden of tariff taxation. If one wades through Hansard it is amusing to see how the raining and farming industries are orated over, flattered, blessed, and twaddled about, although the manner in which they are strangled by Customs taxations might be amusing to outsiders, but it is death to those iadustrii-s. We note that a scheme is now being attempted Jo organise a settler's or Farmer's League, with the avowed object of getting an answering defen sive Protection for itself by way of bonuses for production &c, as a set off to* the tremendous duties that farmers have to pny for their fond, their clothing and their implement?. This is right and it is wrong. It is right that the farmer should endeavour to see that he is not altogether wiped out of existence. For him there is no share of ihat Utopia of Eight hours' work, Eight hour's' pi iy, Eight hours' sleep, and Eight bob a day. There is no "log" for work done, nor is there any Shop Hours Act to make him." close down at 6 p.m. and take several half holidays a week, and he has no Tom Mann or Ben Tillett to barrack for him. He is simply left to himself in a field of the hottest competition in which the prices of his produce ara at the mercy of the iron law of supply and demand, and be is subject, at the same time, to all and more of the same taxation as the most protected dweller in the hottest -ad valorem conservatory. What would the president of the Bootmakers', or Tailors', or Oandlestickmakers' Society | say if a 20-per cent, duty were put 1 on grain, .or what would be the same thing, a 20 per cent, bonus given out of the Public Funds to the farmer for producing if? And yet the giving of such bonuses would only, be placing 'the farmer on'the'same|lfcvel as the highly protected industrWs of the towns. It' all were raised to'that level, no one would be any better off, but: the purchasing value of the sovereign would-*be reduced, and besides there would be a young army of Custom-houseftofficials &c. to pay

for useless work. It is on the principal that two wrongs make a right, that one industry should be "protected" as against another. What applies to agriculture applies to mining." It is a most difficult matter to get a grant from Gtavei nmect for goldfield's roads or a bonus to any new reduction process which might place it on. its legs. The regulations for aid to prospecting and the rewards for the discovery of new yoldfiolds are nothing more nor less than insults to the mining coranounity, and iudoed are impracticable and absurd. , There is no " protection" for the miner, yet from the sole ,of his foot to the crown of his head is he taxed. His very right to dig he must pay for; his pick, shovel and gad are amenable to the tariff, and he is fined'for'every pull at his pipe and sip at,his Johnny. Waiker. Ib would be interesting to calculate how much duty "has been paid on goods imported for \ mining . purposes here as against^.the,dole'd out subsidies we have received fir roads . md works on the goldfiol'd. No!-we. say, let us not" go in for raising the ■ tariff for class purposes, or' for •■ bonuses or any shams and expedients . of the sort. "Lit" the miner, and the farmer band together and the-cry be ■, at the next general election, if not for ~ absoluto free trade, at least as much.,, of it as can possibly be obtained in '. one try/ . • • - '■:" ' • •:

As there seems to be an Egyptian darkness in the minds of some over the burnt bush at the faarbtoto creek, and hundreds of millions of feet, are spoken of as being there;-we ■-would liko to state that expert opioion has it that the bush in" question comprises from 1$ to 2& million feet. The prica asked by the Waste Lands Board (9d per 100 ft) is absurd, as the sap of the timber is absolutely useless. The suggestion has been made that, the Waste Lands Board be requested to have it surveyed and put up tc auction, in one block, when it would probably fetch about £250, which would mean approximately 3d por 100 ft. Another £re would render the whole block almost worthless, and as the County coffers require replenishing, it seems a pity that an arrangement cannot be arrived at before the whole block is sacrificed as a burnt.offering on the,alter of prejudice.

In the evidence of Peter Munro, - brother of the Tauranga murderer, under cross examination he stated that when Munro (accused) came out of the Asylum he got a whole 17s 6d per - week " and what else he.could make." His wife, however," beiog caught in the heinous crime of banking money. out of this princely allowance, the income was reduced to 12s 6d per week. This means about 2s per caput for the family. We would almost sooner be one of the murdered than one of the people to whose door' the crime is to be morally laid.