"Live and Let Live."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5454, 30 October 1885, Page 3

"Live and Let Live."

♦ THE BXTENSION OF OUE INDUSTRIES. THE LESSON OP AMERICA'S EXAMPLE. Tho following Report has been prepared by a Sub-Committee of the New Zealand Protection Association, in reply to comments made by the President of the Chamber of Commerce in his address at the annual general meeting of members. The report is to be discussed at the Protection Association's next meeting : — America's experience. The Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, in his annual address, states that the depression at present existing in so many countries at this time is producing exactly opposite effects on public opinion, aa to the efficacy of Protection in the United States "versus Free Trade in England," and that tho so-called bad times have lessened the confidence of Protectionists in America, one of the most protected countries. This your Committee totally deny. It haa not in any way shaken the confidence of the large majority of the American nation in the enormous benefits their country derives from Protection, and that nation ia surely the very best judge of its own affairs. It is a 6ouroe of wonder to other Bations how that .country can provide for and continually .absorb the enormous population which pours into it weekly, many thousands of whom are almost the paupers of England, Ireland, Germany, Ac, and who land next to penniless on her shoreß. Where, we ask, is there another country on the faoe of the globe that conld do this and not havo -treble the amount of distress that there exists ? And if proof positive ib wanting of the wonderful strides in every sense of tho word made by America under Protection, innumerable and undeniable statistics rto forthcoming which cannot be refuted. ENOLISH OPINION. Mr Stead next refers to public opinion in England as likely to again revert to Protection or Fair Trade aa a remedy for the enormous distress that exists in the country. Your Committed cannot refrain from saying that it is about timo that England was opening its eyes to the enormity of tho folly (we should say crime) of permitting its own Markets to bo flooded with the manufactures of Beveral highly protected countries, to the unpoveriahment and banishment of its own industrial population. • THE WANTS OF NBW ZEALAND. .Mr Stead alao refers to what in his

opinion are the best means to bo adopted to remedy our Colony'B existing distress. Ho proposes immigration as the panacea. "Wo must not restrict our productions, but we must by every means in our power restrict or prevent adequate Protection being given to Colonial manufactures," says the Chamber— which this worthy Chairman represents. Your Committee most unhesitatingly agree with Mr Stead as to our quadrupling, if possible, our productions. But this will only be accomplished by an adequate protective tariff, which would give an immediate stimulus and new life to manufactures, and which would at once enormously increase our population — without State aid — thus; greatly benefiting all classes of the community, as also providing home markets for oui farmers, where they could sell for cash most of their productions, thereby saving commissions, exchanges, &o. Such home markets are found to be highly beneficial to the farmers of the United States, Canada, and Victoria. Such a Protection tariff, this Chamber, as also its co-Chambers throughout the Colony, has Btrenuously opposed. IMMIGRATION. Your Committee, therefore, until such Protection is an established fact in our Colony, do consider it the bounden duty of your Association to prevent, by every means in your power — the further introduction of immigrants, more especially of the labouring and artisan classes, being brCUsht into the Colony at the expense of itß comparatively idle and already overtaxed population. OUB KXPORTB. Mr Stead congratulates the Province and Colony on the Bteady progress of ite industries, and he goeß largely into figures to show the gradual increase of its exports. But Mr Stead must be very well aware that this increase is very misleading, so far as the progress of the Colony is concerned ; for is it not a fact that a considerable proportion of the exports consists of wool, the property of absentee owners, numbers of whom might be named, who employ an overseer, a few shepherds and their dogs ; and who spend the proceeds of this export entirely out of the Colony, and from which it derives little or no benefit P ARE OUR INDUSTRIES INCREASING ? But Mr Stead at the same time deplores the fact that colonists do not, as a rule, encourage the locally-made article as they ought to do, especially when it can be had equally good and at about the same price. Your Committee regret that they cannot acquiesce with Mr Stead in his statement as to industries steadily increasing. They are, however, quite aware that new industries spring up from time to time, but to counterbalance these many others, some of them of long standing, have had to succumb, and those who, through thia, have lost their all in struggling to establish them, leave the Colony in disgust, to commence the battle afresh, and to the Colony's loss. If any proof of this is wanting, one has only to look around to find out a ' number of once nourishing concerns at this moment in liquidation throughout the Colony v which under Protection might have remained busy hives of industry, giving employment to large numbers, circulating many hundreds' of pounds weekly, and thus be retaining pur population, instead of, as it is, their flying from our shores. THE LAND QUESTION. Mr Stead next touches on the Land question, and he quotes " the ever changing land laws as one serious drawback to the success of settlement on the lands of the Colony, and as leading to the withdrawal of capital from time to time, to be invested where land tenure is more secure." Your Committee cannot agree with Mr Stead on this head. The land laws of the Colony have undoubtedly been remodelled frequently by successive Governments, and those of more recent years are generally admitted as improvements on the old laws. If they would have the effect of banishing absenteeism completely from the Colony, they would confer an inestimable benefit on tho Colonists who remain to take their place, to fight ' its battles and bear its burthens. These would have also the satisfaction of knowing that the land remains, it cannot be taken with them, but may in a near future be disposed of to bond fide settlers of the right Btamp, of which the Colony stands so much in need. And your Committee assert that had the Public Works project of 1870 been carried out, of settling the people in Bmall farms on the lands abutting on the main lines of railways, a lasting good would have been done to the Colony, the effects of which would by this time have doubled or trebled omr farming population, and who, instead of flying from the Colony (ruined through bankruptcy), as they are now doing, to find homes elsewhere, would ere how doubtless have had substantial homesteads, and remained amongst us a prosperous and happy people. PROTECTED COUNTRIES. Your Committee observe with some surprise how Mr Stead has completely omitted or overlooked (doubtless intentionally) any reference to prosperous Canada, Victoria, Prance, or Germany — all of them protected countries j for such reference would not chime in with the Freetrade proclivities of thote gentlemen comprising the majority of the Chamber of Commerce. And your Committee are quite prepared by statistics or otherwise to entirely refute his statement " that the wave of depression" which he avers is general throughout the world is at all so accutely felt in those protected countries. ENCOURAGEMENT TO COLONIAL PRODUCTIONS. Your Committee, however, give Mr Stead every credit for sincerity where he in his statement refers to the very " slight encouragement given by colonists to colonial productions." To the shame of colonists, be it said, a more truthful expression is not contained in his whole address. Your Committee regret exceedingly that one having the success of Colonial industries and productions so much at heart as Mr Stead has, has not the courage of his opinions to proclaim himself a pronounced Protectionist, and give his valuable aid and services to an Association which is working with a single eye, not to manufacturers' or farmers' interests alone, but to colonists' as a whole, and to their common adopted country. AN APPEAL TO COMMON SENSE. In conclusion, your Committee would appeal to the common sense of the entire community, and they would ask them not only to pledge themselves to purchase nothing but -Colonial productions of every kind, when they can be had equally good and cheap (and thus, by helping manufacturers they will be helping themselves — and their children), but they would ask every thinking man and woman in the land to study the magic word Protection.. It has raised other countries from a Btate of poverty and distress and has placed them on the highest pinnacle of prosperity. It will do the same for our Colony, and therefore is well worthy of your earnest and thought. We close with the words of Mr Stead:— "We have a climate and soil unsurpassed in the world for the production of all descriptions of animal and vegetable food. We have enormous forests of magnificent timber. We have an inexhaustible Bupply of valuable minerals, in the shape of gold, silver, copper, coal, Ac. Our pastures teem with flocks and herds of highly bred sheep and cattle. We have the healthiest of climates, as our death rate will Bhow, and wo never suffer from droughts or plagues, and last, though not least, we havo an intelligent and industrious community, in fact, every element that represents material wealth. How, then, with this superabundance of food, with these valuable minerals, and inexhaustible supply of raw material, suitable to carry on almost every known manufacturing industry, can we, if we are loyal to ourselves nnd to our adopted country, havo auy foar of .the future ?" i "■ ' ' "■