The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1885. PROTECTION V. FREETRADE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1436, 3 December 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1885. PROTECTION V. FREETRADE.

Thk Otago Daily Times of Monday has ati article dealing with some remarks made by a Mr Charles Darling on the question of Protection. We have not come across Mr Darling’s remarks on the question, but from the article referred (o we infer that he has undertaken to prove to farmers that it would be to their interest to support a policy of Protection, on the ground that it would increase the value of land. The Times replies that the land ia New Zealand is already too dear, and that its price has been raised without the aid of Protection. There is in this sufficient truth to mislead the superficial thinker. Laud has risen in value in this colony without the aid of Protection, it is true, but that

8 not the point. What we want to increase is not, the price of the land, but the price of what it produces. Groin growing will not pay at its present price ; mutton is next to unsaleable ; wool is at an equally low price, and what must concern us is what will raise the value of these commodities. We have no sympathy with men who hold land or Rjieculfilive purposes, an 1 who hi-'' walchiug an opportunity to sell and clear out of the country. They are the only people who are interested in raising the price of land, and not bona fide farmers who have permanently settled down. The latter need not care one jot about the price of land, as they do not want to sell—what they want is reasonable prices for the fruits of their labor, and tlmt they do not get at present. .Now, would protection have tho effect of raising the price of agricultural products ? In reply to this we have to point out that while wheat was selling at from 2s 6d to 2t> 9d in this colony its price was from 4s to 4s 3d in Melbourne. Why should there be Is 6d difference in the price of wheat here and at Melbourne? Who can explain this ? There is no place more highly protected than Victoria, and it appears to us that its farmers owe this high price of grain to its Customs Duties. There can be no doubt but that Protection would improve prices, because it would lead to an increase of population, and consequently an increased consumption. At the lowest calculation we import into this colony L3,000,0()0 worth of goods (some say L 5.000 000) which we could make at home. Ihese 13,000,000 would employ 30,000 men, giving each of them LIOO a year. Then there would be butchers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, etc., etc., also employed in supplying this 30,000 men and their families with the necessaries of life, so that in all probability the expenditure of the L 3,000.000 would give a living to about 40,000 people. Would not that have an effect on the price of grain and mutton ? Why are beef and mutton so cheap now ? Simply because laboring men cannot earn sufficient money to purchase them as freely as they UFed to. Our laborers and mechanics are starving, and we are sending the tnoney to England and America for goods, the production of which employment to the men in these countries. The Evening Herald, which has laken up the Protection cry vigorously, has the following : "We have heard of a letter written to his wife by a Dunedin plasterer, who haR found his way to Melbourne in search of work he could, not find here. He says that almost every other man he meets is from Dunedin, and that the joke among them is that they expect by-and-by to hear of the Octagon and Princess Street sailing up Hobson'a Bay on a raft. The exodus of all these useful citizens is one solution of the difficulty. If Protection does not come to them in the Colony they must go abroad to seek the employment under it which is denied them here. When they come back to their old homes they will return fir«u believers i:i the only policy which can be called National, a policy which will make the prosperity of our own population the first and principal bject of the Government. If our Freetraders are right we should at once open our ports to John Chinaman free of polltax. We are bound by them to buy labor in the cheapest market. Let us surrender these fair islands at once to the Mongolian, and throw up the sponge. Thefe will be a word or two said by us on that point before we are obliged to knuckle under. But our workmen would do well to consider the conclusions to which the doctrines of Preetrade logically lead th«..-ir adherents."

. A writer in the Southland News says:— "Dundee is importing manufactured jute from India, and the British mills are standing idle and the people starving. Now, that is Freetrade. Next, 70,000 women and' children in America have bt-en killed with over-work, and th«ir employers are amasning fortunes. That is Protection. But the Times did not say anything about the thousands of men, women, and children that have died of starvation in Britain through the British Freetrade policy during the last five years, nor of the teos of thousands of pounds that have been raised in charity to feed them as paupers. People who a few years ago were worth thousands are now going to the soup kitchen for their dinners. Our importers are stamping all the life out of the people and the wealth out of the country. I see among the imports from America a lot of washboards—things that any broke D-legged carpenter or some of our boys could make, and as much zinc coming out of drapers' cases as would serve a great m'wy. I am under the impression that wood would do without ginc, yet some are shedding tears every day that thay cannot get a price for their timber. An American, if he were here, would be sending washboards away from Invercacgill by the truck load, About ten years ago the New Zealand Govern•neut sent agents Home to induce a great number of people to come out here, and goodness knows the merchants did work hard fo get them to come, and now when they have got them here tbey will nat give them a job, but employ those who either stopped at Home or went to America. If this goes on long the Government will only have merchants, paupers, and rabbits to pay their revenue." We are convinced that unless the Customs Duties are increased things will go from bad to worse, and that this beuutiful country will soon be ruined. We have, however, great hopes that next election will result in returning to Parliament men who will have common sense enough to see it.