The Wairarapa Daily. FRDIAY, JULY 18, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 215, 18 July 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRDIAY, JULY 18, 1879.

Ddrino the present session of Parliament the question of Free Trade versus Protection will doubtless be raised, and the re-imposition of the duties upon flour and timber will like enough form the cwusus belli The pages of Hansard will contain many folios of lengthy dissertations, but the general public of the colony will be but little the wiser. Indeed, Ave are inclined to doubt whether our worthy legislators themselves are perfectly at home as to the actual difference between Free Trade and Protection, and how far New Zealand is able to adopt either policy. A foggy notion that Free Trade means Free Trade, and Protection, somehow, or another, means Protection, pervades the minds of most colonists. Few amongst us have studied the question, and those who have done so readily admit the difficulty of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion. As a colony we go blundering along, sometimes tending to one side and sometimes to the other; striving to be Free Traders, yet circumstances and a great public debt forcing us,, almost against our will, to be Protectionists. Which side are we to espouse 1 Which is the best fcr us? England and New South Wales aie Free Traders. This means that they do not place heavy Customs duties upon foreign articles of production, The United States and Victoria are Protectionists. ' This means that they act precisely in the opposite direction. Whit, then, is Free Trade 1 Free trade literally is labor untrammelled; labor being the real measure' ef the exchangeable value of all commodities, Can we hope to impress this axiom upon the small circle of colonists who react this journal? Labor pays for everything; the accumulation of labor being what is known as capital, When labor is free trade is free. '. When heavy burdens arc imposed in the shape of Custom or inland taxes, labor is trammelled, Let us endeavor to make ourselves perfectly clear, and to do so we

must show how it is that labor pays for everything, Wellington and Masterton are growing cities, Who pays the cost of their construction? The laborer, and only the laborer. This is easily proved. A merchant resolves to build a store to receive the goods he orders from England. He employs a certain number of carpenters or bricklayers, The capital employed in paying their wages and purchasing material, say £IO,OOO (the representative of so much* labor previously accumulated) becomes for the moment sunk. The goods arrive and are stored. Their price is made up. To English cost are added freight (another great branch of labor), Custom duties, trade expenses, profit, and a certain percentage for .the interest upon the capital sunk in building the store. These goods, whether ironware, soft goods, or groceries, are sold to the Masterton storekeeper (who, perhaps, has also built a store) for the purpose of retailing to the laborer. The Masterton storekeeper adds to the Wellington cost the freight between Wellington and Masterton, his trade expenses, profit, and also the. interest of his buildings employed as stores. The coat, chisel, or pound of tea, with all these items added, ultimately reaches the laborer or consumer, and the only item that is not directly represented by labor is the Customs duties added at the port of entry. All the rest—the merchant's profit, being the supposed payment for his labor and other capital employed—being services performed by other laborers. Wo therefore clearly see that the cost of construction of the towns and villages of New Zealand have to be paid for by the laborer, and whether the laborer be a carpenter, bricklayer, or agriculturalist makes little difference. When he buys lie buys his food, clothing, or tools, he pays something towards 1 the cost of building our towns and villages, These structures, together with roads and railways, represent the accumulated wealth of the colony, towards which each laborer contributes a portion, It is clear, then, that labor is the real basis upon which to base theories whether of Free Trade or Protection, We propose to revert to this subject in our next issue.

In the Legislative Council on Wednesday Dr Grace presented a petition on behalf of Catholics anxious for amendment of the Education Act. The Hon. G. M. Waterhouse moved for information respecting the recent reclaimed land .sale, and the Hon. Colonel Whitmore gave notice to introduce bills for the care and control of drunkards. The Hon. Captain Baillie was appointed Chairman of Committees, Major Richmond declining re-election. In a discussion re House Committee arrangements, Mr Waterhouse accused some hon. members of going home after the late session without paying for their refreshments. In the House of Representatives, Mr Murray asked the Premier—When the Drainage Bill, promised by the Government last session to be distributed before the meeting of Parliament, will be introduced ? The Hon. Mr Macandrew was understood to say that it was not intended to tiring forward such a bill at the present time, Leave was given to introduce thefolfowing BillsA Bill to make provision for the Representation- of the People in the General Assembly (Sir G. Grey); a Bill to suspend Plurality of Voting in certain cases (Sir Gr. Grey); a Bill to authorise the Borrowing and Raising of Money for Immigration and Construction of Public Works, in committee (Sir G. Grey); a Bill to amend the Resident Magistrates' Courts Act (Mr Curtis); the Local Option Bill (Mr Feltlwick); Native Grants in Trust Bill (Hon. Mr Sheehan); the Native Land Duties Act Amendment Bill (Hon, Mr Sheehan); the Bribery Bill (Hon. Mr Sheehan); a Bill to amend the Law relating to Electors qualified to Vote at Elections of the Members of the House of Representatives, and to make provision for the Regulation and Conduct of such Elections (Hon, Mr Sheehan). On the motion of Sir William Fox, Mr Seymour was appointed Chairman of Committees, Sir George Grey seconding the motion, The Premier moved the suspen,' sion of the Standing orders, in order that

an Impressed Supply Bill might be passedTlie Opposition, however, declined to agree to the motion without some explanation was given of the necessity of the course The Hon Mr Macandrew moved that a select committee, consisting of eleven members, be appointed to consider and report as to the principle which shall regulate the distribution of Government advertisements among the various newspapers throughout the Colony. After a slight discussion the debate 011 the motion was adjourned. An amendment on a motion in favor of direct steam communication with England a division was taken— Ayes, 38 ; Noes, 28, the oft'ect of which was to adjourn the discussion for a week.

Mr T. H. Murray has resigned his seat in the Wairarapa West County Council, Tenders for the Greytown Branch Railway close on Wednesday next, We trust a local contractor will be the successful tenderer.

To-morrow F. H. Wood and Co, hold one of their popular unreserved sales of general merchandise at their auction rooms, Greytown.

The Masterton Rifle Yolunteors parade this evening. We understand. 50 short Enfields are to be at once served out to members,

We are glad to notice that the contrac" tor for the extension of the footpath in Queen-street to the Waipoua Bridge is making good progress with his work. We trust the meeting convened on Monday next to form a Cadet Corps at the Masterton school-room will be well attended. Unless 50 cadets are enrolled, no capitation grant from the Government will be available.

The louse of Commons has, without a division, agreed to a motion for an address to the Crown for a Royal Commission on the distress in agricultural districts.

The Port Darwin Cable is interrupted. Arrangements are now being made for the conveyance of mails. A steamer arrived at Port Darwin on Tuesday evening' with Cablegrams. The special steamer left Port Darwin yesterday afternoon (Tuursday). , The London 1 Daily News , publishes a telegram dated Capetown, 25th June, detailing Cetewayo's overtures for peace. The High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief have offered to grant an armistice on certain conditions, pending the arrival from London of the terms 'of peace fixed by the British Government. Strong hopes are entertained that the peaco negotiations will terminate the war.

' Tendei'sare inyited for trimming about 80. chains of gorse hedge. , Hares' are now rapidly increasing in the Wairarapa, • ■ • The 'annual meeting of members of the Wairarapa, Permanent' Investment Association takes' place to-day at Greytown.

The Carterton Amateur Dramatic Club make their bow to the public in their own township this evening, in effort is now being made to have Mr Campbell, of Carterton, appointed a Drill Instructor for the Wairarapa District. Mr Campbell's qualifications for the position are undoubted.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer in reply to a question in the House of Commons on July 2, said that the estimated expenditure in the Zulu war was £500,000 per month.

. A committee meeting is, convened for Saturday next of those appointed to get up the Masterton Ploughing Match. The business will be to fix prizes and programme, and a full attendance of members is requested. A meeting of the creditors in the estate of F.ianlc Pelliiig, cordial manufaturer, of Greytoivn, was held last Wednesday afternoon at the Supreme Court, the Registrar in the chair, The liabilities were reported to be £s39,'and nominal assets £626, thera being secured creditors to the extent of £3OO, Mr Krullwas appointed Trustee.

" What has become of the ill-fated Amelius Morlaud Smith, now that his late boss,, the exTreasurer has been deposed 1" Thus writes a correspondent, We presume (says the Eangitikei Advocate) that the gallant Amelius will hang his harp on the willow tree, and be off to the wars again, ■ It has been observed that in a single English newspaper 150 farms maybe seen advortised to let; bankruptcies, which were wont to be rare amongst farmers, amounted to 800, or four times their nominal average during lg7B, and from the untoward opening of the present year, they may be still more numerous in 1879.

A twenty-year-old girl in Akron, Ohio, dreamed the she saw her mother murdered in an hotel in Warren, in that State. The next morning she told of the dream and was laughed at for her fears. When the evening paper came she read therein the details of the murder almost precisely as its occurence in her drem,

A rev. gentleman (saya the Daily Times) was returning thanks to the members of the Education Board at last meeting for favours received, and had got as far as "In the name of the where Mr Bastings, amid much laughter, chimed in, ''Father and the son." The deputation of which the rev, gentleman formed a member then withdrew. We have always (writes the Otago Daily Times) cheerfully allowed Sin George Gre'yi really great abilities and capacity for usefulness to his country; but we see clearly now what we only suspected before that his training, his antecedents and his temper alike combined to render him unfit for the position he now holds as a political leader. Perhaps, too, the lesson learnt from recent events may not be entirely lost upon a considerable section of representatives, who have been a little prone to take Sir George Grey and his views, rather indiscriminately upon trust. A curious circumstance is narrated by the Freemantel Herald of April 26 " The boy who was unfortunately killed by lightening at the Subiaco Orphanage was found after death to have a fig leaf and geranium, which he was holding in his hand, photographed on his breast. Another boy who was in tlm number of those who were stunned but not further injured, was found, wheu examined, to have a fig-leaf photographed on his foot, which was at the same time swollen by its contact with the electric fluid."

We learn from the Wairoa Free Press that four young whales were recently washed ashore oil the Mahia Beach, Hawke's Bay, and captured, Out of two of them were extracted a couple of miniature whales, perfectly formed; the larger one measured sixteen inches, and the smaller one not over six, The informant adds that they are preserved in spirits by a Mr .Benclall, who intends to forward them to the Wellington Museum; and further, that they are a curiosity which'it has taken a long time to obtain.