198 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



rest of the population has sunk so abnormally 

 low. Thus the work of restoration must be 

 gradual, for to shut out the foreign product too 

 suddenly would leave a gap in supplies, and 

 political and humanitarian considerations veto 

 any changes which would add appreciably to 

 the cost of living. In other countries the task 

 of agricultural protection has not been so com- 

 plicated, because it was undertaken at the first 

 stage of agricultural depression. In Australia, 

 since a policy of agricultural protection was 

 definitely decided upon, the range of food duties 

 has by successive increases reached an average of 

 about 30 per cent, (excluding alcoholic liquors 

 and tobacco). But it did not in my experience 

 in Australia, under Free Trade and under Pro- 

 tection, cause an increase in the cost of living, 

 though lately, of course, the cost of living in 

 Australia has increased in sympathy with world- 

 wide movements towards higher prices. The 

 Australian tariff policy is founded on the simple 

 plan of putting a high, almost exclusive, tariff 

 on all articles of food which can be easily pro- 

 duced in the country, and admitting free those 

 articles of food which must be imported. The 



