THE FISCAL PROBLEM.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 132, 1 December 1904, Page 5

THE FISCAL PROBLEM.

«3>— VIEWS OF THE LEADER OF THE | OPPOSITION. [press association.] (Received December 1, 8.31 a.m.) LONDON, 30th November. Sir Henry Campbell - Bannerman, Leader of the Opposition, in the course of a speech delivered at Manchester, said: — "We have nothing better to give the colonies than open ports. They ought to give us greater facilif^es. The Sugar Convention is causing us the loss of millions in order to benefit the West Indies by a few thousands. This is a foretaste of retaliation and preference." PREFERENTIAL TRADE. AUCKLAND, 30th November. . An interesting point in connection with the question of preferential trade was referred to at the meeting ot the Auckland Chamber of Commerce by Mr. John Reid, who pointed out that fpr more than twenty years New Zealar.d had given big preference to Australian wine, against wine from Portugal, California, or elsewhere. During all these years New Zealand had got nothing in return, and he thought it was about time that the New Zealand Government approached the Commonwealth Government to see if some New Zealand products could not be admitted to the Commonwealth in exchange. A remission of duty on maize would be of great benefit to New Zealand. When the Commonwealth tariff was framed a duty of abo'it lOd per bushel was put on maize, with the result that since the drought broke up, the Commonwealth had scarcely taken any of our maize. The limejuice produced in Rarotonga was now completely shut out from Australia, and in consequence the industry had almost come to a standstill. Ho thought it unreasonable for New Zealand to continue this preference without getting anything in return.