RECORD BRITISH TRADE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12906, 19 February 1906, Page 6

RECORD BRITISH TRADE.

! The stars in their courses, says the "Daily Chronicle," are lighting against ' Air Chamberlain. Board of Trade returns 1 show that the year 1905 established a, : record" for British commerce oversea. • The. aggregate volume of our itrade, in- : eluding imports and exports, reached the L enormous total_of £395,302,869, an increase on the previous year of nearly £44,000,000. In imports the increase- amounts in round figures to 14 millions sterling, of which nearly £6,000.000 was .in raw materials—a striking s>roof of the prosperity of our manufacturing industries. In the exports T the increase over 1904 amounts to close on £30,000y000 in value, of. which no less than £26.000,000 is represented by manufactured goods. How ridiculous in the light of these figures are the- lamentations 1 of Tariff Reformers on the decline of our export trade. We have here- proof that: all our great staple trades aTe in a prosperoiE condition. The " dying industries " '• of ilr Chamberlain's mournful aatalogue " have taken their revenge by showing abounding vitality. Last year we ex- ' ported of ! than in the previous year: in woollen goods -there was nn increase of £2.463,611. 1 in macliintiy ail iuercase of £2,£02,4-30. * and in iron and steel £3.760,471.- We ■' wish we 1 had time and fe*pace to show how r the trad*«. statistics for last year confute every statement and falsify every }';e<liciticn made by Mr Chamberlain. They: gave jthe final knock-down Wow to the Psoteci.tionist propaganda. It must now co3apse jlike -an empty sack. | Mr C. W. Macara. "president vf the Federation of blaster Cotton Spinners" Associations, mid -chairman of the Commfetec of the International Federation of Mastei j Sotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' Assoj ciations, in a; published manifesto, says-: 3 "The machinery engaged, the volume - of 5 ivusiness, ana- the spending power of the I millions directly and indirectly dependent . -on- this vast industry wt-re never so grant j as-- now. and this last is a factor which 3 materially affects the prosperity of the nation:- at. large—bo section more than that a of agriculture, the largest and most pvorit- (. a3le outlet for agricultural produce being the" great .industrial centres of the novth j of England."