The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20. THE PREFERENTIAL TRADE PROBLEM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7544, 20 August 1902, Page 2

The Star.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20. THE PREFERENTIAL TRADE PROBLEM.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock iv Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, C'Uaiawa, Eltliam, MaDgatoki, Kaponca, Avatuua, Opunake, Otakeho, Mnnutahi, A. ton, Hurleyvillo, Patea. and Waverley.

In the last issue of tbe New Zealand Trade Review there are printed certain figures which bring borne some of the difficulties to be faced by Imperial statesmen, and to be explained away by colonial public men] who urge the claims of the colonies for preferential treatment of colonial products. 7 he writer deals with tbe statement that various groups oi the colonies form respectively Great Britain's granary, butchery, and dairy, and we confess that the comparisons he makes, on the authority of Board of Trade r el urns, are somewhat of a cold dcuche to hopes which we, in common with many others, entertain Takiir.g the returna for 1901, the artic c dealt) first with grain. It shows that tha total imports of grain into | the United Kingdom were as follow : From foreign countries ... £17,540,376 From British possessions and protectorates ... £5,540,996 of which Canada supplied £2,2 16,049 and New Zealand £ 148,975. So that the supply from Oanade, '< tho granary," was only one tenth of the whole. Then as to the " butchery," meaning Australia and New Zealand, the imports are Shown to compare a? follows : — Beef— Foreign countries ... £8,121,040 Colonies, etc. „, £3,902,328 Mutton —Foreign countries £2,395,752 Colonies, etc. ... £3,902,328 Of the latter item New Zealand supplied in round number-? three millions worth. Live oattle (including sheep) : | £. j Foreign countries ... ... 7,810,787 Colonies m 1,616,016 of which latter over a million and ahalf's worth was sent from Canada. So that, on the whole, for its meat the United Kingdom has yet to ; draw upon other countries to a much | larger extent than from the colonies. As to the dairy produce, which we in New Zealand are greatly interested ' in, the figures are again heavily against) us. The imports into the United Kingdom were :— £. Butter— Foreign 16.238,542 „ Colonies 8,058,854 Of the £19,297,896, " the dairy," New Zealand, supplied £819,584, about one twentieth. In cheese the figures are more favourable to tbe colonies. Cheese— Foreign £2,335,477 „ Colonies £3,891,658 of which New Zealand supplied £193,149, or lees than a thirtieth, and Canada £8,697,660. Taken in the gross, the imports of these various classes of articles amounted to £416,416,492, of which the colonies supplied £105,578,701. In view of these figures, the Review condemns the colonial demand for preferential treatment as untenable, on the ground that colonists could , not expect the British people to pay extra taxation on four-fifths of their supplies in order to suit the suppliers of the other fifth. And it , must be conceded that there is great force in this view. On I the other hand, it should not ; be forgotten that the colonies' products are likely to increase, arid that ! in war time probably many of the foreign sources of supply would be cut off, so that, apart from sentiment, the United Kingdom has a

great interest in developing the I colonial trade. It is evidently premature to talk' of a preferential tariff, but the conferences wbioh have been held may at any rate aobieve good in directing public attention to the value of the colonies to the consumer in the United £ingdom ; as well as to the value of the consumer to the colonial producers.