PREFERENTIAL TRADE

Otago Witness, Issue 2579, 19 August 1903, Page 28

PREFERENTIAL TRADE

♦ ANOTHER DISCUSSION IN PARLIAMENT. THE CANADIAN EXPERIMENT. LORD CARRINGTON'S VIEAVS. LONDON, August 10. • Mr Giamberlain, in reply to an inquiry, repudiated any knowledge of the Daily Mail's fiscal statement. August 12. The Tariff Reform League has issued ■ a pamphlet in answer to the appeal of the Labour members of the House of Commons to the workmen of the colonies asking them to defeat the fiscal proposals. The league desires to warn the cjalonies that Mr Chamberlain never suggested that the food of any householder should be rendered dearer. He had specifically stated that no workers' food should be increased by a single farthing. In the House of Commons the Speaker would not permit a discussion on the fiscal inquiry proposal, but during the debate on the second readiug of the Appropriation Bill Sir C. Dilke said that the Government, by the manner in which the fiscal matter had been brought forward, had disturbed the trade of the country. Lord Hugh, Cecil protested that Mr Chamberlain's combining the prestige of a Minister of the Crown with the utmost liberty of the ordinary politician was a constitutional scandal scarcely less than was Mr Balfour's opposition to any discussion on the subject. Mr Balfour, replying to Mr Lloyd George, promised within a month an in- - stalment of the Board of Trade figures connected with the fiscal question. He deprecated the importation of theories into the Board cf Trade statistics. He would not ask permanent officials to embark in polemics. He had never discussed a matter of policy with them, and had not the smallest idea of their i opinions on the fiscal problem. The Hon. H. C. Copeland, in a letter published in the Standard, quoting decimal statistics in support of Mr Chamberlain's demand for a fiscal inquiry, declares that unless some favourable intervention occurs Australia's foreign -trade will iv a few years exceed that with the Motherland. August 13. Mr Balfour, replying to Mr J. H. Dalziel, said t!?at the Government were j revising some advance proofs of the Board of Trade returns respecting the fiscal inquir}*. The "Westminster Gazette .stages that the latent report carrying any weight is that Mr Chamberlain is considering ' a scheme of taxation on foreign-manu- , faqtured good 1 ;, the revenue from which . is to be devoted to subsidising the car- i riage of colonial wiieat and other food- J .stuffs. The Standard, in an apparently m spired first leader, complains of Mr Chamberlain's cataclysmic precipitancy in introducing his fiscal problem. The prospect, the paper says, has more "hope- j lessly shattered the party than were ths Liberals on the occasion of Mr Gladstone's Home Rule proposals. Mr Chamberlain, in agitating while the Cabinet is inquiring, destroys the collective responsibility of Cabinet, and this situation cannot last. Resignations in any case are only too likely when the Cabinet policy, which Mr Chamberlain so brusquely assumed to anticipate, is announced, and disruption is not inevitable. If the proposals are limited to a revenue tax on corn, and measures to meet the unfair bountied competition of foreign manufacturers with the Home markets are brought down, it would be possible with common sense to unite the Unionist majority on a programme capably and reasonably presented to the constituencies. The solution rests with the Cabinet, and, above all, with Mr Chamberlain, if he chooses to drop the idea of protective taxes on the food of j the masses. ■

August 14. A return has been issued showing hat, including bullion and specie, the imports of the British colonies for the decade ending 1900 from the United Kingdom increased 22h millions; to British possessions, thirteen millions ; from foreign countries, 20 millions. The exports from the colonies to the United Kingdom increased 2H millions; to British possessions, 10 millions; to foreign countries, 18} millions- The imports for the year 1900 consisted of 117 millions from the United Kingdom, 46 millions from British possessions, and 81 millions from foreign countries. The exports consisted of 108 millions to the United Kiugdqm, ASh millions to British possessions, and 87 millions to foreign countries. August 16. Lord Carrington, speaking at High Wycombe, declared that Mr Chamberlain's last wild miscalculation would probably share the same fate as his other miscalculations. What level-headed man believes that the country will allow any interference with its food supplies? If defeated, Mr Chamberlain might try to win on the "cry foi retaliation, but this would only make bad blood in Europe. The Board of Trade's return in reference to Canada's preferential tariff shows that whereas in the five years before 1897 the British, imports to Canada had decreased by £2,225,000, they increased by £4,100,000 between 1897 and 1902. The Canadian imports from the United States during the same period increased by 12,000,000d0l (£2,400,000). MELBOURNE, August 17. Mr Tom Mann, speaking at Wodonga, said that although the bulk of the workers in England still believed in Freetrade, many were prepared to go even further in the direction of Protection than Mr Chamberlain had indicated. His own opinion of a preferential tariff "was that it would be no good either to Great Britain or to the colonies.