COLONIAL TRADE WITH ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 253, 1 November 1897, Page 4

COLONIAL TRADE WITH ENGLAND.

If Mr Chamberlain's despatch to the Governors of British colonies on the subject of British trade with the colonies fails to provide the basis for an Imperial Customs Union it has, at any rate, produced a mass of valuable, information. This has been published in a huge Blue Book of some GOO pages, which comprises Mr Chamberlain's despatch, 31 colonial replies, and the Indian statement compiled by the Secretary of State for that considerable adjunct to the Empire. There is also an interesting official memorandum reviewing- tersely the mass of instructive information contained in the volume. The importance of the investigation is disclosed by the figures given, of the average annual value of the import trade of the colonies from the United Kingdom and from foreign countries during three periods of three years each. During the first period, 1883-5, the average value of colonial imports from the United Kingdom was over 62-1 millions sterling, as against a trifle over

3G millions from foreign countries. In the second period ISSS-90 the United Kingdom figures had declined by over a million and a half and the foreign had risen to close upon 38 millions sterling. The third period, 1893-5, showed a much more serious alteration, for the United Kingdom's figures had falen to a little over 55^ millions, whilst the foreigners had risen to rather more than 42A millions. The main general conclusions which are drawn from the colonial replies by the Colonial Office are:—

1. In the best classes of goods and in the capacity to put the best possible article on a market which requires it, the British manufacturer, and this seems generally to mean the manufacturer from the United Kingdom is still supreme. 2. There are certain exceptions to the above rule, chiefly in the case of machinery and tools of certain patterns, and in favour of the United States. Yet in these particular lines the Canadian manufacturer is often a successful competitor with those of the United States. 3. A great portion of the general colonial market is not a market for the best class of goods, and in proportion as cheap and finished imitations of such goods can be put on the market the trade will go away to. the producers of such imitation,.. This is precisely where the foreign manufacturer is coming in. 4. There is some clanger that where the trade goes to foreign competitors in the cheap goods just mentioned a certain proportion of the better class of trade may also be diverted eventually.

The whole volume is very instructive reading, but, so far as the British manufacturer and exporter is concerned, it contains only the same old sermon that has been preached to them by consuls and agents through the medium of the press for many years past. Briefly put, this is: You must encourage the demand for your ff oods by complying with the desires %i your customers.' Victoria wanted her cartridges packed in twentyfives The English people refused to pack except in hundreds, So the complaisant German and 'cute Yankee stepped in and took the trade to themselves. Iv chemicals, earthenware, metal goods, and perfumea spirits, the tale is the same: the foreigner has paid and is paying more attention to outward show, and as a result is gaining a better and better footing. . , . Taking the Blue Book as a whole, no complaint is made as to the quality of British goods. The preference for foreign wares in the colonies seems to be entirely on the score of packing and the 'get up' of packages. The cheap British articles are not finished' in the style necessary to cover their lack of 'quality;' they look 'cheap and nasty' where the foreign produce looks 'cheap and tasty, i± one ma? put it so. Apart from the growing feeling of patriotism which is rising superior to the Cobdenite doctrine of cheapness as the first law of trade, these colonies are not particularly anxious to lose their commerce with foreign nations. They rather desire to secure Continental markets for colonial wares. Still we believe that there is something more than sentiment in the dsire for closer unity between the Home Country and the colonies, and it is worth while to make sacrifices for the attainment of sush an end.