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The article discusses the economic growth of New South Wales and Victoria. It focuses on the implementation of tariffs in these regions for the protection of domestic industries. While Victoria had adopted the protective system earlier, New South Wales strictly sticks to a tariff for revenue only. The growth of population has been more rapid in New South Wales than in Victoria. It discusses the tariff systems in both the areas and concludes that a protective tariff will not work in all cases and may be beneficial for only some industries.

The article focuses on issues related to economic effects of the Australian tariff. There is analysis of the Australian Tariff Committee's report on tariff and free trade theory. Professor Jacob Viner states that free trade theory had not attempted to face certain questions relevant to the application of protection to a country with resources like those of Australia. Economist Alfred Marshall's analysis of the laws of increasing and decreasing returns upon the fiscal policy is of special interest to Australia. It is viewed that the export industries have to bear most of the tariff burden. It is observed that the greatest expansion of employment in the primary industries is in dairying and sugar which have benefited substantially from the tariff. An analysis of the relation of the increase in employment to tariff assistance for manufacturing sustains the conclusion that those industries which have received the greatest protection are those in which the expansion has been most pronounced.