State Interference.

Witness protective laws. Our attempts to force, through Customs duties, the progress of industries in New Zealand for which the Colony is not so well suited as other places, have sadly failed, and the people have been compelled to pay more for their goods than was necessary. It has been just as bad in Victoria. Trades there which have been protected for twenty years need protecting still as much as ever. Let anyone see the New Zealand Trade Review, December 31, 1891, and "Liberty and Liberalism," p. 341. Victorians imposed a heavy duty on our New Zealand oats. We grow 2873 bushels to the acre, and Victorians grow only 22.25 bushels, because we have better soil and climate; but the citizens there are not allowed to spend their own money in buying oats where they please, but are compelled to buy where the Parliament dictates, even though they pay more and get worse served. But to benefit farmers they ruined cabmen, page 21 carriers, and 'bus owners. Similarly many departments of trade and labour are being injured through ignorance of true political economy. We tax Victorian cloth and leather to benefit our manufacturers, and Victorians retaliate by taxing our fanners and excluding their oats from their market. True political economy is such an adjustment of economic affairs as will benefit all alike, not one class at the expense of another class.