EFFECTS OF PROTECTION ON IMPORTS. 621 



extent, or to some portion of it, from the remunerative 

 employment which they might otherwise have obtained. 

 Except with trifling exceptions, all value is the result of 

 human labour ; and when these goods to the value of 

 £20,000,000 reach this colony they represent the expenditure 

 of that value in labour, and we in this colony are very properly 

 regarded as having helped to feed and clothe and house a 

 large army of people abroad by giving them thus of our 

 custom for their labour. 



Hence arises the benevolent and patriotic desire of rather 

 giving this employment to our own people ; of housing and 

 feeding and clothing our fellow-colonists, who are so much 

 nearer to us and whose necessities ought to be so much the 

 more a care to us. And with that laudable feeling I have 

 every sympathy, though I believe that it is and must remain 

 a futile one. For nature has placed barriers of her own 

 against its operation to any useful purpose. This has been 

 shown as the result of theoretic enquiry over and over again ; 

 but in this paper [ propose to put it to the test of an actual 

 appeal to facts. 



Does our protective tariff in Victoria diminish the amount 

 we import of the results of foreign labour ? Look at the 

 diagram herein enclosed. Let us call the broad line running 

 across the middle with dates upon it the " base line." The 

 dates run from 1838 to 1890. A line measured up from the 

 base line at any year represents the amount per head of the 

 imports for that year, at the rate of an eighth of an inch for 

 every £ per head of the imports. Points being thus got for 

 every year from 1 838 to 1890 these points are joined to make 

 the continuous line, which thus becomes a sort of picture of the 

 imports which the eye readily takes in at a glance. Here 

 we see that when the people first began to come to this colony 

 they had to rely for everything on the foreign producer. 

 They had no factories at work. They had not even the soil 

 broken up to grow their own corn or their own vegetables. 

 In 1840 the rate of importation reached its maximum. The 

 colony began to produce for itself. The imports, which had 

 been as high as £40 per head, declined to only £7. And so it 

 continued with little variation till 1850, when an immense 

 influx of men took place, and all busied themselves in getting 

 gold, while hardly any of them thought of producing the 

 articles which were necessary for their consumption. 



The natural result is clearly shown in the line of imports 

 which suddenly runs up beyond all bounds, till it reaches its 



