PROTECTION AND CURRENCY CHANGES 6 1 



were freely qualified by the comment that, however 

 desirable, it was hopeless to expect to get them. 



Among witnesses not hostile to protection as a prin- 

 ciple, the prevalent opinion was probably expressed by 

 Mr Punchard, who thought protection might be a remedy 

 for depression, but that it was wholly out of the question. 



Other strong witnesses think protection would be 

 no remedy as well as impossible, and that it would not 

 better the condition of agriculture. 



Mr Albert Pell and Mr Squarey see no reason what- 

 ever to depart in any degree from the principles of free 

 trade. 



Mr Turnbull thinks an import duty on wheat might 

 raise the price of home wheat, but it would depress the 

 price of home cattle and stock. In the long run it would 

 benefit neither owner nor tenant. 



Mr Gilbert Murray says Derbyshire farmers do not 

 want protection, it would be against their interests. 



The evidence generally as to the branches of agriculture 

 which have held out best during the depression, dairy 

 farming, and stock-breeding and fattening, show that 

 everywhere things would have gone much worse for the 

 farmers in these branches were it not for the cheap 

 feeding stuffs imported from abroad. 



Mr Turnor, a large Lincolnshire landowner, said : " I 

 would sooner have the cheap foreign barley for fattening 

 stock." 



Mr Stratton recommends farmers to sell their hay and 

 other crops, and buy for feeding Russian barley at 84s 

 a ton. 



A Lancashire farmer who has got on says : " I am a 

 free trader ; I say we all buy our feeding stuffs cheaper, 

 and we all live cheaper because of free trade." 



Alike ^mong the sheep farmers in the Western 

 Highlands, and in the south-western dairying counties 

 of Scotland, the protection theory is wholly out of favour 

 with many. 



As to the bimetallic solution of the difficulties of 

 agriculture, the case for these proposals was laid before 

 us with ability and completeness by Professor Foxwell, 



