THE FISCAL QUESTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5728, 25 October 1905, Page 5

THE FISCAL QUESTION.

CABLE NEWS.

UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. —BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—COPYRIGHT.

INCREASING EXPORTS. PREDICTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN FALSIFIED. REPLY TO MR CHAMBERLAIN. (Received October 24, 10.54 p.ra.) LONDON, October 24. Speaking at Edinburgh, Mr Asquith, M.P., said Mr Chamberlain’s prediction —his double-edged “decaying trade and dissolving Empire”—had been falsified. The nation’s exports wore still increasing. They amounted to £249,000,000 for the first nine mouths of 1905.

“This,”' said Mr Asquith, “is pretty good for a ‘stagnant, stationary trade,’ the increase consisting chiefly of British manufactures.” IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN GOODS. LONDON, October 24. Mr Howard Vincent, M.P. for ■Sheffield, in a manifesto to his constituents, states that in 1904 foreign finished goods worth £63,212,000 were imported into Great Britain, causing a loss in wages of £31,606,000. FBEETRADE AND PREFERENCE. EARL JERSEY’S VIEWS. (Received October 24, 9.41 p-m.) MELBOURNE, October 21. Earl Jersey, interviewed here to-day, said, personally, ho thought it unlikely that there would bo a reversal of the general principles of free trade in Great Britain, though it was not improbable there might bo some modification. It was not at all improbable that reviews of commercial treaties with other countries would bo undertaken. Ho thought, however, that a feeling was growing that England might give some attention to proposals for preferential trade with the colonies, even it they involved some modification of the stern rulo of free trade.

He regarded it as unlikely that there would bo an Imperial conference before next general election. It would bo quite a mistake for any one of the parties to the conference to go to it with a fixed policy. Prudent people would say, “Lett the conference meet, and draft the different opinions gathered.” i