Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Wednesday 21 December 1881, page 6


FREE TRADE.

To the Editor.

Sib, — A letter, with the above heading, appeared in your Wednesday's issue, and another letter from an individual signing ' Anti-Humbug.' Both appear af- camp followers after a battle. Neither writer seems satisfied to leave your own powerful artillery in the leading1 article of the preceding Wednesday t» do its work. The extreme inuooense of the writer of the first letter alluded to, signing ' C. A. B.,' is so

self-evident that it regnired no answer from me, proving as it does my own case, viz., that we do not manufacture our own tallow into etearine, and that we ought not to sell the freehold of oar lands. The second letter — that of ' A. H.' — I saw for the first time thiB morning (Friday), and from its offensive nature, this also would have been passed aa the emanation of a rough, uncultnred builv, utterly unworthy of a moment's notios by me. Bat ont of respect to the editor, who has found a plaoe for tbe utterances of 'A. H.,' I would remark that my let-ter and advertisements contain the truth on the great facts of the case, and all that is necessary on this subject for the study of the Stateman. I never aimed at the microscopical nicety which enables a professor to tell us the number of hairs on a bee's knee. My letter and advertisements contain the information that we pay .£45,000 for imported stearine; that the raw. material eosts .£15,000.; that £30,000 of the £45,000 accrued to Victoria over the oont of tallow. Whether there be 800 tons or 400 tons of tallow used are immaterial, so Jong as the qvantity of tallow nsed in producing tbe £45 ,000 worth of stearine cost no more than £15.000. Nor does it matter whether there be 200 or 250 men employed, or whether the wages be £2 or £2 10a per week per man, aor that the money spent in wages be wholly paid to women instead of to men. These details are all a matter of illustration only, and of no consequence to the main iesue. Or again, whether the manufacturer takes part of the £30,000, and applies it to rents or profits, or in eome other ingredient besides tallow for this making of stearine, and some £4UO0 or £5000 g'a in thie direction. All, all, are entirely unimportant as compared to the great fact that we pay the Victorians £30,000 a year for that which, withasumeientproteotivedutyontheimnorfced article, we could retain tbe coat of in New South Wales, and employ the money in machinery and men manufacturing stoarine in our own colony instead of in Victoria. If ' A. H.' cannot comprehend illustrations of tbe nature I have placed before the public, he makes only another of the nsmbera of blind leading the blind who hug themselves in the belief that free trade single-handed is a glorious thing, instead of its boles' most ruinous. Such a loveoftheminutiaBaa ' A. H.' has ehown himself to poEsess, proves him to be a man who ' strains at a £nat and swallows a camel.' For he Iosgs sight of the ercat fact that we send cut cf tha colony .£600,000 solid- gold sovereigns every 20 years, to say nothing of the cost of tallow for another colony to use and get rich oa, whilst we hav« all the residuum that is left frem the consumption of £15,000 worth of etearlne candles every year. If this residuum be valuable, then the cheapness of the article ie established. But for the ssks of New South Wales and her people I maintain that if candles could ba bought hers for 4d per lb instead of 8 i or 9d, the whole purchase is a lose to the community whenever we can manufacture the article with oar own labour and our own machinery. One other point, and I bays done. It has been eeid that Victoria beys the tallow from us with whioh to make etearine, Now, will any man say that Victoria, idofis not produce enough raw tallow for this purpose f 16 does not follow that becaucs the wellinformed Melbourne merchant buys tallow in this market, it must necessarily be for home consumption. He buys it here, beosuae, from the want of manufactures to work it up, the tallow -s cheaper, and sc mnch more loss to New South Wales, and the tallow sent to Melbourne is for ehipment, the same as our wool whicb leaves Victorian waters fcr Europe. —Fours. &oM E. C. LtJSCOMBli. Nithsdale-streot, December 1€, 1881.