on, I fully recognise that moderate
import duties are necessary as a means of raising revenue. The first
duty of every Finance Minister is to obtain an income for the State by
the methods which are the least irksome to the taxpayers. In new
countries, not exporters of manufactured goods, import duties are
universally found to be the least irksome form of taxation. If under a
moderate tariff industries are established earlier than would be
possible without some Protection, the incidental advantage is secured
of varied employment for the people. Where all depend on the same
pursuit or the same industry, an unfavourable season or a fall in
price may cause a general depression. There is less risk of universal
melancholy and decline when the public wealth is derived from various
and independent sources. My conclusion is against import duties on a
high scale, levied, as in the United States, for the purpose of
exclusion. I recognise the necessity in certain circumstances for the
imposition of import duties on a moderate scale for the purposes of
revenue.

'I have one more remark to offer in connection with the labour
question. Among the many gratifying things which I have seen in your
colony, nothing has exceeded your system of education. I congratulate
your people, and I honour your Government for their efforts in the
cause. It may not, however, be superfluous to refer to that tendency
to look disparagingly on manual labour, which is so frequent and fatal
a result of the very perfection of educational work. Education may
become a curse rather than a boon if it relaxes that physical energy
which in all communities, and especially in a new country, is the
indispensable condition of progress. It has been truly said by the
poet Browning:--

The honest earnest man must stand and work,
The woman also--otherwise she drops
At once below the dignity of man,
Accepting serfdom.
I count that Heaven itself is only work
To a surer issue.

Society must take to itself the responsibility for the preference
given to clerical over mechanical employments. We have not done our
duty in giving to our skilled workmen that social recognition which
is their due. But I am happy to say that in the old country we are
decidedly in the way of amendment. The return of working men in
greater numbers to the House of Commons has been productive of much
good in a social point of view.

'In conclusion, it may not be inappropriate