PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY.

Progress, 1 November 1905, Page 5

PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY.

In almost every inhabited and civilised part of the earth to-day there is evidence of humanity's desire to keep in the van of progress by maintaining high moral standards, adopting the best fiscal policies, instituting laws in relation to peculiar national exigencies, and developing the natural resources of the land. In countries both rich in natural products and manufacturing facilities the policy of Protection has been adopted with a resultant benefit which, strange to say, the whole world has indirectly shared in. Taking the United States of America as an instance, we find that, despite Henry George's prophecy that the States were ready a few years ago for a movement that would appeal to Americans on behalf of a real Free Trade, ' ' the only true factor in industrial betterment," that country has enjoyed an unbroken record of prosperity under Protection from the day the McKinley Tariff came into operation, fifteen years ago. The progress of the States is more than passingly remarkable, inasmuch that while discovery and invention have been steadily increasing the productive powers of Labour in every department of industry, the condition of the working man has not suffered retrogression. This satisfactory state is coincident with the condition of the artisan in the Australasian colonies where, although the aggregate productive power of Labour has not reached the American standard, or even that of France, the combined States must continue to grow and prosper as long as Protection primarily imposes the acquisition of mechanical skill for the proper development of natural resources. Some economists argue that a protective tariff is undesirable to the colonist, and harmful to the land under whose flag the colonies prosper ; and, moreover, they obduratefy hold that Protection is in reality the thin end of the Republican wedge. Probably the most direct contravention to such fallacies is voiced in the unswerving patriotism

which has been identified with the colonies whenever the parent land needed their sympathy most — a patriotism that has struck the enemy harder than any missile of war. And again, Canada long ago demonstrated, in a practical manner, her loyalty to the Crown by modifying her protective policy in favour of British imports The preferential tariff introduced by Sir Wilfrid I^aurier in 1897 was a bold step in the direction of imperial unity ; and the illustrious French-Canadian premier is said to have never repudiated it. Six years after New Zealand adopted a similar measure in ' ' The Preferential and Reciprocal Trade Act of 1903," whereby goods "when not the produce or manufacture of some part of the British dominions," are subjected to a duty as high as 50 per cent, in some cases, while 20 per cent, is levied on a class of goods hitherto admitted free. Protection, therefore, is not indicative of a colony's disloyalty, nor in the least way harmful to the Motherland ; but it is indisputably the practical voicer of democracy, and the most equitable of fiscal policies in a country like our own. New Zealand, under a protective tariff, has largely increased her volume of trade in the last ten years, The value of our exports in 1904, inclusive of specie, was /14,633,27a ; in 1894, ,£9,085,148. Industrially, a great advance has been made : the number of male hands employed in factories and industrial works in 1896 being placed at 22,986, while in 1904 it rose to close upon 40,000 — female hands increasing at a slightly less ratio. Wages and values of land for factories increased in like proportion during the past decade ; and a very satisfactory development will be noticed in the value of the colony's machinery and plant, viz : — from £2, 988, 955 in 1896, to over four millions in 1904. Without going into extensive figures it may be safely concluded that this colony is flourishing because of the protective measures taken to preserve her industries ; and the more industries New Zealand can foster and establish the greater will be her prosperity. Men, being members of a civilised community, are indebted to the labours of that community, both past and present, for the privileges they enjoy, and to orderly government for the welfare and security of possessions. It is therefore clear that a moral obligation underlies our contributing, chiefly by the indirect taxation of a protective policy, to the cost of the State's upkeep in discharging its effective measures for the colony's advancement. And to what end is this advancement pressing ? Surely, that with colonial expansion will come increase of facilities for interimperial trade ; and with colonial expansion, too, will come a demand to be heard in the counsels of the Empire. England must eventually join Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and her other over-sea colonies in a regular partnership, with a proportionate control and responsibility in respect of imperial affairs. This is what the colonies are to look for — the fruition of the long-cherished hopes of every true Briton over the Seas.