IMPORT DUTY ON CEREALS AND FLOUR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 645, 6 September 1869, Page 2

IMPORT DUTY ON CEREALS AND FLOUR.

Mr Stafford, in his reply to Mr Vogel on the question of imposing a duty on cereals and flour, read the following letter which he had received from Mr J. S. Mill, touching upon the subject :— "Avignon, 11th December, 1868. "Dear Sir,—When I had the honour of receiving your of the 4th September, my time was so fully occupied with our great electoral struggle, and other things, that I have been obliged to defer answering it till now. " I have had a rather extensive correspondence with various persons in Australia respecting the sanction supposed to be given by the passage wLich you quote fiom my Political Economy to the protectionist doctrines then afloat. One of mv most recent explanatory letters, which was addressed to Mr Holden, member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, has been printed in the newspapers of the Colony; and it is not unlikely that, since writing1 your letter, you may have seen it. "The protecting duties, which II thought mijrht sometimes be advisable in a young countr}', for the purpose of ascertaining by experiment the suitability of its circumstances for the naturalization of foreign branches of industry, are duties expressly imposed for a limited time, not exceeding a few years—-say from five to twelve or there-abouts, according to the case—and to cease peremptorily at the end of the period, unless it.could be conclusively shown that he facilities given by the duties had been fairly, used, but required some further and still more strictly limited time to make the experiment a fair one.

Some\ Australians navTtfassured me that the Australian protectionists do riot carry, their prqtebtiojilijst proclivities beyond, tins lpojnt4' I observe, however, tha't-the protectionist interests which areTosteied by the protecting' duties are raising up, as" they have always done elsewhere, protectionist theories of; the old, type, and that the most exploded'fatlacW of the mercantile systenfare revived with a simple ignorance of all that has been written and proved against them, which is strange to minds accustomed to the subject as usually discussed in Europe. ' '*-'"■' " There is great danger that the duties, even if imposed ostensibly for a time only, would, at the expiration of the time; or before it, have been made permament. But they were not, I believe, in every case imposed as temporary duties, but were as permament us any Acts of the Colonial Parliaments.

" 1 am now much shaken in the opinion which has so often been quoted for purposes which it did not warrant; and I am disposed to think that when it is advisable, as it may sometimes be, to subsidize a new industry on its commencement, this had better be done by a direct annual grant, which is far less likely to be continued after the conditions which alone justified it have ceased! to exist.—l have, <fee, "- ijjjk?* . " J. S. ftll/lT^ " Hon. E.. W. Stafford, &c." / ; '„-