FREETRADE AND PROTECTION.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXVII, Issue 8197, 9 August 1895, Page 1

FREETRADE AND PROTECTION.

Ilic following capital little cssav was read lately at a meeting of the Opotiki Club by Mr H. fi. LamberL• Mr Chairman pd Gentlemen,-It falls to my lot this evening to say a few words upon the liberty of trade, or as it is more generally known Freetrade, as against Protection, or restriction of trade, and I have prepared a paper entitled the cost of The first cost of Protection is that it exisfs at the price of the destruction of the fundamental principle of all good honest Government. That fundamental principle is that Government should only impose taxation for the purpose of carrying on the true functions of responsible. Government. Protection tends to overturn that principle, luxation under Protection first taxes the people throßgh the Custom House, and then the manufacturer, tvho is able to manufacture his gondsty Ihe restriction of the Custom House, taxes his customers and then puts the tax into his own pocket. Kow, America in the Old World and Victoria, in Australia, are frequently held up as examples of the outcome of high Custom; duties. In America the annual eosr, of Protection is over £220, 000,000, while wages amount to £237, 0-0,000. Thai, gives an average wage of £09 per annum, while the amount of taxation raised equals £92 per annum per individual engaged in each and all of the protected industries. In other words, Protection means that for the ' sake of 35 per cent the general community are taxed 75 per cent. The farming industry can sain uothingjby i strict ion of trade, The higher you make the pi i r e of > farming requisites, atul t he mora von tax the machinery, the higher will be the cost to the farmer and the less his profit (if any). e cannot benefit the mining industry by Prolect : on, for by putting on extra duty for picks, shovels, &c, which miners use will not fetid'to enable them to find more ounces of gold. Wo can tax tke miner, hut not protect him by a Customs Tax; neither can we protect the carpenters, bricklayer?, stonemasons, quarrymen, roadmen, carriers, bns drivers, draymen, policemen, accountants, clerks, shop assistants, farm hands, and bnshmen. Not 99 per cent of any of the alove receive any benefit from Pro- • tection, The only result of increased taxation upon these tradesmen and operatives will he a heavier biirdenfor them to bear. The history of oilier countries proves beyond [all question that Pioteftlon means an increased cost in the 'necessaries of life, which have to be borne by all, and in some countries until the strongest advocates of Protection are forced to cry out against the burden The poor man has to pay ihe cost of 75 per cent on thecommunity which only benefits or operates on 25 per cent of tl c community, 'Ihe rich pay no moie than the poor, as protection is an ir,iqiii»oi.s system which taxes the poor and allows tho rich to go scot free. Those who pay the duty are the struggling worker, his wife, and children. It is an indisputable fact that since ihe repeal of the corn laws some 50 years since, mainly through the great Cobden, that the American Mercantile Marine lias steadily inclined;- also, the shipbuilding, in Victoria has seriously declined in 20 years under restriction. Protection cripples the hii>h estate of labor, it'introduces pauper labor, and is inseparable from extreme poverty amongst the industrial classes, and millionaires amongst the capitalists. All the pauper stricken countries in the world are Protectionists, and the pauper labor of the world is chiefly ihe pauper labor of Protection ; it reduces and degrades labor. In the American woollen mills there are employed' .75,000 males above 16 year's of ngp, 1)0,000 females, and 19,200 children. How many women and children are we permitting to be degraded by working in factories under'Piotection in New Zraland p Don't let them talk to you abotn Protection in this new comtrv. Go to the sta's of Massachusit's and take the report of the Commissioners of Labour. Look at the statistics, and you will find ihat the wasjc-p.'trners of that S'a'esro unab'e at current wage 3 to keep themselves alive; bn.t for the lalour of their children, . Another cost of Protection is that it lowers tho tone of public life and fosters jlass legislat-io-. A Lost of all it is the relinquishing of I hat, priceless boon !o the Brit ; sh and New Zealand workman, viz : his freelom, and his right to buy and sell in , my market unrestricted,—OpotiMNcws,