144 On the Resources of Victoria, 



Now, the certain consequences of this state of things must 

 be, as all experience has proved — first, the cost of transport 

 from here to England, and from England here, will be 

 enormously increased ; and for months together there will be 

 delays in sending our raw materials out of the colony. This 

 will cause a reduced demand, and a fall in then' value, which 

 will be a serious loss to the colony ; while the manufactured 

 articles only arriving here at uncertain times, and after ex- 

 perience on our part of much inconvenience for want of them 

 in our market, will certainly rise enormously in price. 

 Thus those who now produce and export raw materials to 

 England will suffer greatly from depreciation in value of 

 such articles; while every one in the colony, without any 

 exception whatever, will suffer from the enhanced value of 

 all manufactured articles imported. This depreciation alone 

 in the value of our raw materials, will cause many persons 

 to be thrown out of employment ; and thus, when manufac- 

 tured articles are much dearer, there will be less means to 

 purchase them. These disadvantages will tell upon us most 

 seriously in war times, as long as we are not a manufacturing 

 people. 



Looking at the list of articles we import, there are no 

 importations which are so fatal to our interests as are the intro- 

 duction of wheat, flour, oats, barley, malt, maize, and gram. 

 We import these from countries, for the most part, which have 

 no manufactures, and we pay for them invariably in ready 

 money. All these articles we could raise ourselves, and we 

 ought to raise them ; if we did, then the one and a half 

 millions of money which we pay for them would go into the 

 pockets of our Victorian farmers, instead of into the pockets 

 of the farmers of other countries. And therefore so much more 

 money would be in circulation among us, for the encourage- 

 ment of colonial enterprise and industry. 



I say, in time of peace that the importation of these things 

 is bad for us ; but in time of war dependence on such impor- 

 tations must reduce us to great straights, and panics, and 

 severe loss, and possibly even to plague and famine. 



There is no commodity on which scarcity or precarious 

 supply has such an effect as on the price of corn. An emi- 

 nent writer says — " In the case of deficient supply, every one 

 aiming to get what he requires, produces a disproportionate 

 advance in price. Thus, a deficiency of one-tenth of the 

 quantity of corn required, will raise the price three-tenths 

 beyond the usual rate. And a deficiency of one-fourth, more 



