Sir Julius Vogel on Protection. Dunedin, November 29.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 181, 4 December 1886, Page 4

Sir Julius Vogel on Protection. Dunedin, November 29.

Ax addre?3 wa3 delivered at the Lyceum ! Kail thi3 evening by Sir Julius Vogel, I under tho auspices ot the recently formed I Protection League. The b mid ing was j well filled. Messrs Bracken, Dow rue j Stewart, and Goro, M.H.R.'s for Dunedin, j occupied seat* on the platform. i Sir Julius prefaced his remarks by eaying i that ho was not going to make a political I speech, but would give something in the ! way of an essay on an economical subject, I Probably he would not that evening have a i tfjmpatheticaudience. The pre&« throughout ' tho colony ceiiainly a large section of it— J wi= not in favour of the principle oi ptotccI tion. Whether iv was that the press hud so j fiimly taken up the rooted opinions ot tho | old country, or whether they wore sounder I in their arguments than those who differed from them, he could not Bay, but there wwa no doubt a majority of the Press in this colony were in favour of free trade view?, | Although not a favourite with it, ho uit-hed to say thab the Press throughout the colony was distinguished by a great amount of ability, and a large amount < f enterprise As ho stated, ho was not at all certain that he should have a sympathetic audience, because it mighr be that ho was not able to go so far in tho direction of pro- , t-^ction as the association which had done ] him the honour of asking him 1o make an address that evening. He would not call I himself a thorough-going protectionist boi pan=e ho gave weight to their arguments. , The other free traders arguad that it was of j no consequence to a country adopting free I trade whether or not it lost or gained in population. That was the fundamental principle running through their argument He denied that, and he held that the Ja6t thing the colony could afford was not to be unmindful of the question of retaining or losing its population. The burdens already undertaken wore with the conviction that they would be shared in by a much larger number of persons than those who took the responsibility of incurring them. He denied that New South Wales was, strictly speaking, a free trade country, and hinted that in time to come it wjuld figure as a distinguished colony pledged to extreme protection views. Every country should adopt views applicable to ite own requirements. It must not be supposed that in countries which adopted protection views the intelligence of the Anglo- Saxon race had degenerated, because the example of Great Britain had not been followed. In considering the meaning of the term protection it should be borne in mind that press telegrams were protected, inasmuch as for those messages only 6d per 100 words was charged, which did not pay the operators. Oth9r forms of protection to the public were in our system of free education and the railwas, the rates for which were so low that they were not worked at a profit, or as a commercial undertaking. Although it seemed a paradox, a high rate of wages led not only to more excellent work, but to cheaper work in the long run. The diminished revenue was not due to local production, but to the diminished use of alcohol, and to the fact that the ad valorem duties would yield lees because the value of imports was smaller than it had been for years past. A gentleman who had been appointed to report on the boots and shoes in the Colinderies Exhibition had assured Dr. Yon Haastj that those exhibits from New Zealand were the best in the Exhibition, That was not to him (Sir Julius) a matter for surprise, because we had imported into this colony the best artisans, and it was a misfortune that we wore unable to retain in our midst the flower of our population. Canada and Victoria had shown this colony the wisdom of adopting a protection system. It would be seen from what he had said that he did not oonsider that free trade doctrineß were sound for this colony, or that it was desirable they should

proceed too raahly in this way at once of charging prohibitive dutieß. Local production should be stimulated by a gradual increase of duties until they showed their fitneßS to have entire command of the market. Although the railway rates did not p^y, he would prefer seeing the customs duties raised, and a lower rate charged on the railways. He thanked the audience for thoir kind reception on an essentially dry subject. (Cheers. ) On the motion of Mr Bracken a hearty vote of thanka was accorded to him for his address.