ONE-SIDED RECIPROCITY.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2554, 8 July 1871, Page 2

ONE-SIDED RECIPROCITY.

[From the Nelson Bra mi ner.] A good deal has been said by the friends of Government, who seek to palliate if not justify the reckless expenditure of ministers, concerning the great benefits the colony would derive by opening up a trade with America, in return for the £50,000 a-year lavished on the postal service to San Francisco. A gentleman in Auckland, an old colonist, who lately paid a visit, to the Pacific State, and has returned to the colony, in a letter to the New Zealand Herald, gives a list of duties levied in San Francisco on those articles of produce which New Zealand would like to ship:—Wool, first class, od per lb, and 11 per cent, ad valorem ; washed wool, 6d per lb; potatoes, Is £d per bushel ; sheep, 20 per cent, ad valorem. In fact, says the writer, all New Zealand and Australian produce, except coal, may be considered prohibited. With such duties, the trade between New Zealand and San Francisco will have little of reciprocity in it —except what is styled " Irish reciprocity " —all on one side. No wonder the scheme is popular in America, aud our PostmasterGeneral gets patted on the back. • We open new markets for American produce, we subsidise with £50,000 a-year American steamers, I which can find no employment at horne — and, in return, anything this colony can supply is shut out of American markets by a prohibitive duty ! This is one way of helping an impoverished country.