THE RAILWAY TARIFF. He had promised to urge upon Government a complete revision of the tariff; but when he got to Wellington, it was so late in the session, and the House was so wearied with business and members were so anxious to get back to their homes, that he saw it would be absolutely use less to ask them to go into the whole matter. However, he had done the next best thing in urging a reduction on the freights of such articles as agricultural lime and pottery ware. The present tariff prevented the local manufacturer selling in the Christchurch market; also that before he could sell anywhere there he would have to pay half the freight out of his pocket. The Minister could not believe the

;ariff was prohibitory, but when told that

it was as high as the. freight from Lon don to Lyttelton he could understand it. He had also pointed out that the tariff on lime prevented its use by the farmers; and since it had been reduced the demand

for agricultural lime had been enormous. Benefits would follow in other cases if the car riagewerereducedcorrespondingly.—(Applause.) He had just received a letter from a consignee in Christchurch to whom Mr Neville had sent a crate of ware worth £20 7s. The tariff on

that amounted to £3 6s Bd, or one-sixth the total value of the article manufactured. He got a cheque back for £18 3s Bd, after having been charged £113s 4d for half-carriage. That con firmed what, he had just previously stated. Had he not to pay that freight, he could successfully

compete in the Christchurch market (for they would sooner have the ware than that manu factured in England), and the result would be that instead of - having 15 men they would

have 100 men employed in their pottery works in less than three months.— (Hear, hear, and applause.) How would that affect them? Talk about the Government increasing local industries! That was the .way they did it. The respective freights on drain pipes aud pottery ware were £1 Is 2d and £3 13s 4d. It was perfectly scandalous, ridiculous, and they never could make local industries prosper in the face of a tariff like that. He did not blame the Government; they knew nothing about it. He blamed Mr Maxwell. 