ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13486, 13 May 1907, Page 7

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, April 5. TRADE WITH CANADA. , # "The New * Zealand Government," says the Times, " has sent a special representative to Canada in, order to promote trade between the two - countries. After visiting Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Ottawa, he has taken quarters in Montreal, and is carrying on his propaganda among the merchants of the commercial metropolis. 'He points out that New Zealand last year took goods worth £1,500,000 from the United States, and only £120,000 from Canada ; yet, other things being equal, the New Zealanders would prefer trading with their fellow-citizens in the Dominion. He lias interviewed a-great many Canadian manufacturers, who declare that they can meet the conditions laid down, so there seems no reason why they should not capture a large part of the trade. New Zealand, he adds, can supply Canada with wool, flax, and gum, and, given the necessary cold storage in steamers, he considers' that she could also supply mutton to the cities of Western Canada as far east' as Winnipeg. As it is, about 5000 carcases of mutton are landed in Vancouver by every steamer from Australia." . : VISIT OF. NEW ZEALAND . FOOTBALLERS^ • I learn that the following circular 1 has been issued' to the football clubs in the union by the Northern Union Committee - respecting, the proposed visit -. of, a ; New Zealand . team to the Northern Union clubs next, season: — " The committee have had this matter under consideration,, and they are very favourably disposed to the visit providing— (1) They receive satisfactory assurances as to strength of team; (2) sufficient support in guarantees from clubs in membership with our union." The committee suggest that the. New Zealand! team be paid 70 per cent, of the gross gate, with a guarantee from the union that their . share for the tour be not less than £3000. To meet:, this guarantee it is suggested that each club or combination having a match with the New Zealand team shall guarantee the New Zealand share'of the gate to be: (a) For a Saturday or holiday match, £100 ;> (b) for a. mid-week match, £50. V- The C 'amounts guaranteed to be deposited in the. bank to the credit of "New Zealand Guarantee Fund," not later than June 1 next. . It is estimated that the,, guarantees from clubs will amount.to between. £2000 and £2500, and the Union Committee will be prepared to make up. balance of guarantee. .As there is only a ! short time to make the necessary arrangements for. the visit, clubs and combinations , desirous/, of .having, matches ' upon the terms suggested are asked to notify the authorities as early as possible./ A correspondent in the \orkf shire Evening. Post makes the • following comment: — It will be. of interest, to know, in the event of the visit taking place, what , form, of football will ,be played. . Are ; the matches to' be 13 a-side, with all-that this implies, or 15 a-side, with the Rugby amateur rules, and license for wing forward and half-back play, such as the Northern Union taboo 1 ' If there are two different forms of football, how can the tests be adequate and fair? .There are many difficulties to be considered respecting this New Zealand - project, and great caution ought to be shown in dealing with it," 1

/ BUTTER IMPORTS. ' _ . Referring to' the butter . imports' .»n,to Britain, a London paper remarksßy far and away the greatest supplies, of course, came from Denmark, namely 81,261 tons,. or a: little more . than half ;of the total imports from foreign, countries, and 24,000 tons more than we received from Australia/ Canada, and New Zealand combined. Whereas the-imports of Danish butter into this countiy, however, have (Shown, a steady decline 'in the last , four years, the imports of the . Australian article have: exhibited a corresponding increase. ■ v Regularity of arrival, is the great thing needed for Australasian butter ini Great Britain. The accomplishment of this desideratum, however, so far as /the whole .of the . Australian butter trade is concerned; does not appear to' be ' yet in sight. .Unlike Denmark, which sends us a fairly steady supply of butter all the year round, Australia* and New Zealand despatch the great bulk of theirs in the winter; and the' tendency is for it slowly .to oust Diunish butter at that period; of the year,' when, the latter is .handicapped, in having to enter into competition with Australian and New. Zealand butter from cows fed on grass, as against artificial fodder. Butter from the antipodes' is claimed to be fully equal to its Continental rivals in every respect." . ' '. ■' THE MARITIME CONFERENCE. -Dealing with the work of the Maritime Conference now sitting,'; the Scotsman remarks that at the Colonial Conference of 1902, " resolutions were passed calling for greater uniformity, of the navigation laws of the Mother Country! and the self-govern-ing colonies, .with a view to the promotion of British trade in British vessels, ,The New Zealand and Australian representatives were the most pronounced advocates of some effort at codification, yet, curiously enough, it is just from New Zealand and the Commonwealth that have come 1 those proposals which are regarded ;as constituting a menace to British shipping. , ', Thus Mr. Seddon had a scheme for a Stateed and State-subsidised line of steamers between New Zealand and England; and though this has not yet come to pass, a similar scheme is actually in progress of development under the guarantee of the Commonwealth Government. But since 1902 the colonial Governments have passed the New Zealand Shipping and Seamen Act (1903), and the Commonwealth Navigation and Shipping Act (1904), and the British Merchant Shipping Act Amendment Act became law last session. Among those Acts there is no attempt at uniformity. The colonial Acts were so obviously menacing to British shipping that the Royal assent was , with-held in the one case pending the report of a Royal Commission, and only given -in the other case with ine intimation that the provisions of the Bill, so far as . they clashed with the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, would be ' void and inoperative under the Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865." It was as & direct consequence of these colonial Acts that Mr. Lvttelton opened a correspondence with the two Governments of which the present Conference is the outcome." .