The Wanganui Chronicle, PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES GINE LINEA." SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1895.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12122, 3 August 1895, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle, PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES GINE LINEA." SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1895.

THE TARIFF. Br mutual agreement between the Premier and the leader of the Opposition, the debate on the Financial Statement will commence on Tuesday nighb. The Premier , indeed, declared that he was ready to take the debate last night, but Captain Russell, amid the laughter of. the House, observed that *' as the Statement had taken the Governtnent fifteen months to prepare, it was surely reasonable that the Oppo*i- ' tion shbuld have more than fifteen lioiirs to master its details and nature." The Captain farther stated, ' for the benefit of the Premier, that he would insist upon certain returns being placed on the table to enable them to discuss the Statement satisfactorily. The feeling with which | the Statement is regarded in. Wellington is thus described by The Hawke's Bay Herald 1 correspon- < dent : — \ <• The Statement seems to excite very ( little interest, and in that raspect it is in maiked contrast to last year's Budget, which contained so many startling proposals, and literally teemed with- borrow- ] ing in all d'reotiona. Some of the tariff * proposals, as I anticipated, will be strongly < oppostd, and an effort will be made to restore the tea duty to what it stood at before. Members contend that if »reduc- i tion of threepence in the pound were made the public generally would feel the benefit of it, but a penny reduction is utterly , condemned a« helping only the large ( packers and importer*. Several other ' alterations in the tariff are also adversely crititised and will probably not be us sented to by the Houbb." ' ' The Hawera Star, referring to the i details of the proposed new tariff, pbseives: — •'We may Bay, however, from a , hurried glance over them, that there is a good deal of " tinkering " and the main obiect evidently is to get more revenue and to increase the protective element in tho tariff." The Evening Post, of course, condemns the Budget from beginning to cud. In its issue of Wednesday evening it says : — " Yesterday we commented on the ennobling spectacle presented by politics in New South Walee, where a great electoral conflict his t-een fought and won on the brood battlefield of principle, under the noble banner of Freetrade. To-day we can contemplate in ou; midst a piciure the reverse of this-a political scene as debasing as anything of the kind could well to! We have the spectacle of a ColoßlalTrtftsucerbrmgingdownabudset in which heritors with every princ.ple whUih honest politicians should hold most Ced, and offers for acceptance as a tariff a wretched thing of shreds andpatcU based solely on lines of self ish temporary expediency, and at [erlv devoid of any prmcple. With the details of the tariff proposals we shall deal separately, only naarhug , here on the hypocritical absurdity of teh f^t that the Colonial Treasurer who has : o«uSt down such Proposals was one of , the members who last week cabled bMr :

Reid congratulating him on the triumph | ichieved by Liberalism at the New South Wales polls. What, we wonder, will Me Reid and his followers cay to Mr Ward's Budget and tariff ? Most certainly if Mr Reid is a trua Literal, or his policy an jrabodiment of Liberalism, then Mr Ward is not a Liberal, nor his policy that of [iiberalism,bnt a wretched, shoddy, eham. ipart from the tariff proposals, under ivh : :h an extra £19,000 a year is to be sxacted from the necessities of the Deople through the Customhouse, there s not much in the Budget. It is compiled ander an evident sense of depresiiou, lotwithstanding the most vigorous effort 8 )f irs author to appear jaunty and buoymt, The evident necessity for oonceuiratittg: all his efforts in one last deaperats ittompfc to make both ends meet for the pear, has, however, proved too much for bis spirits. By omitting the usual contribution of £25,000 -from Consolidated Bevenue to Pub'.ic Works, leaving the Supplementary Estimates practically unprovided for, and increasing Cußtoms taxation by Mr Ward hope« to be able to "reach Chicago" on 31&fc March without a deficiency between ordinary revenue and expenditure. Thbre is absolutely no provision made or prop^sod for the continuance or nxtonsion of railway works. The Public Works Puad, Part I, is reduced to under .£50,000, and of the Horth Island Trunk Railway million there is bat a paltry £12,600 left. Instead of the contributions heretofore, by elaborate false pretence, supposed to be made from revenue to Public Works i sum of .£160,000 is to be sit. apart for roads and similar works, but jei4s,4Go of it is to be provided by " debentures for Sinking Fund increases." In fact, despite the new taxation, the utmost revenue which can be counted upon will, Mr Ward admits,- barely suffice to keep the ordinary Government expenditure coing until the end of the financial year, then, all the surpluses will have disappeared, and the Treasury will be absolutely empty. Beyond the Blßt March next Mr Ward's finance does not go. Beyond that (here is the deluge. Mr Ward is simply a political Micawber — waiting for something to turn np. The future must provide for itself. How the army of unemployed are to be provided for, even in the meautiimytiiere is no hint in the Budget. It is to cost them, as well as others, more to live, but how the means are to be obtained is not shown." The Hawkes' Bay Herald, referring to the tariff, is quite relieved at the people of the Colony having been let off so lightly, as compared with the burdens it expected would have been imposed. "The part of the Statement (it says) which will evoke the most interest and discussion, as more directly affecting the people, is the new Customs tariff. It is undoubtedly much simpler than that it displaces, and there are slight reductions of duties on tea, coffee, rice, matches, candied peel, and kerosene, and larger reductions on fencing wire. Other duties have been abolished altogether. The effeot of others, such as those on boots and shoes and leather goods generally, only an expert can determine/as in many cases ad valorem duties have been imposed in place of specifio duties, but, speaking broadly, these are all in the direction of increases. Among direct increases we find the following: — Jellies, from 2d to 4d per lb ; pickles, 50 per cent more ; spirits in bulk, Is per gallon more ; druga, from 15 to 20 percent ; hats and caps, 15 to 20 per cent; the better classes of cotton goods, 10 !to 20 per cent; flannellettes, from free and 15 per cent to 20 per cent all round; boots and shoes, from free and 15 per cent to 25 per cant all round ; carpets, from 15 to 20 per cent j glassware generally from 15 to 20 per cent ; jewellery, from 20 to 25 per cent ; pioturei, frcii 15 to 20 per .cent;- plate, from '20 to 25 per cent ; unenumerateil stationery, f rom 15 to 20 per oent ; firearms, 15 to 20 per cut; woodenware, 15 to 20- per cent; paints, from 2s and 3s to 4s and 6g ; varnish, from Is Od to .2s ; tarpaulins, tent, covers, etc., from 15 to 20 per cent; Unseed, from free to 40s per ton ; brooms', brushes etc, from 20 to 25 per cent ; and corks, ,from 15 to 20 per cent. This does not ex. haust the list, but is a fair indication of the drift of the tariff. On the whole wa belißve it will be received with a sigh of relief. It is not so Protectionist in character as many people' feared. Instead of clapping on protective dntießto foster weakly local industries at the of the people as airhole, it rather seeks to' aid idem by' admitting free the raw materials used in such uianu failures, whioh is certainly much better. But the tariff viill impose a largely increasai burden on the people. Mr Ward jauntingly puts the increase- at only £10,000, on the ground that though .the-new and increased dut'es will pi" duce £55,000, the duties remitted or reduced will give relief .to Iho extent of £45,000. But it is a certainty that though the people as a whole will hove to pay the £55,000, with merchants' and retailers' profits added, there is no such certainty that the people will get anything like the full benefit of the remissions. Oh the contrary, they assuredly wilt not, as the remissions are professedly in the interests of local industries, and the savings there will be pooketed by a handful of manufacturers. The tariff will not go far enough in one direction to please the Protectionist element in the House, but it will go too far fov the Freetiftde element. It is essentially a compromise. Still, on the whole, we may be thankful that it does not add still more heavily to the burdens of a people already groaning under the weight of taxation."