ANGLO-COLONIAL TRADE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5463, 15 January 1896, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL TRADE.

"We received from the Colonial Office by last night's mail a copy of the despatch on the subject of trade between the United Kingdom and the colonies which the Right Hon Joseph Chamberlain has addressed to his Excellency the Governor. "Moatlhodi," or " The Man who Sets Everything Right" (as the Bechuanaland envoys christened the Secretary for the Colonies), is most anxious it should not be thought hehaspreparedthis budget of queries and suggestions without due consultation with accredited representatives of the colonies. We are specially requested to state that it was drawn up with the co-operation of " the High Commissioner of Canada, the Agents-General of the other self-governing colonies and the principal Chambers of Commerce through-' out; the United Kingdom." The main features of the despatch have been fairly fully cabled. Briefly summed up, the document is a thoroughly practical and business-like attempt to get at some of the most important guiding facts of trade between the colonies and the Mother Country. Mr Chamberlain does not trouble himself for the moment about the difference of tariffs— that may come by and by— and it would be folly to raise more difficulties than one can help. Let us take for granted that the article: whatever; it may be is subject to a duty fixed in accordance with the scale prevailing in the particular colony. But what ; it. ' is extremely desirable to know is whether the volume of ; Anglo-Colonial trade is increasing or decreasing, and whether the introduction of English products is hampered in any way by - hindrances capable of being removed. Hence the question which the colonies are in this circular invited to answer is the precise value of foreign goods which, because of their cheapness or excellence, are superseding or interfering with British products. AreEngland's rivals, as the Minister evidently suspects, displacing her in trade with her colonies, and, if so, to what extent ? To know the fact, if it exists, will be something, but to know the causes will be more important. If the volume of British trade is decreasing there must be reasons to explain the change, and to take these to heart is the essential preliminary of all reform. '" Let us," the London Telegraph, urges in noticing the despatch, "cease to chatter about free trade and fair trade and preferential tariffs; and ask whether the articles which we desire the colonies tp import— whatever may be the duty they may have to pay — are in themselves as good as they [ can be made, or whether we can take lessons from France or Germany." This is precisely the courae that Mr Chamberlain has adopted, and for which he asks the active assistance of the colonies. The English Press has, received the despatch with marked , approval. The Chronicle -thinks it natural that the document ehotild be regarded with some suspicion by freetraders, but it cannot believe Mr Chamberlain, contemplates a violation : of the Spirit or doctrine .of Cobdenism.: After Reciting the- features Of- the circular it says;:'— i "If Mr Chamberlain can. get all the colonists to see' that' by working hand -in' hand with England, and with each other, they and we may become virtually independent of foreign trade as regards most articles of consumption, he may be taking a i greater step than can be fully measured at present towards the realisation of the hope of Richard Cobden, that free trade should j be the universal rule of commerce. The j British Empire produces all the necessaries and some of the luxuries of modern, society. What it does not and cannot produce are such pure luxuries that 99 per cent of our population at '-Home and over sea would not know whether a high tariff were imposed on them or not. But of course this' is not to say that we should let Australian hock in at half the price of Rhine wine, or charge Cape with half the rate of Madeira." The Chronicle concludes its article with the sapient observation that we shall know in good time what is expected to result from Mr Chamberlain's investigation. Some of the colonies may possibly expect a measure of .protection as the result. They will be deceiving themselves. Differential duties will never again have a place on an English statute book. But our Colonial Office, our Agents-General, our Colonial ' Governors', will be doing more than they* have ever done before if they set themselves to make generally known what the Various countries composing the Empire want from one another, and how those wants can best be supplied. - The Standard considers the despatch "a document of the highest significance," and "an important practical step towards the attainment of a great Imperial. 'idea." "We need not," it continues, "import into the despatch a meaning beyond the. plain sense of the words. No doubt, in the discussions about federation, there have been suggestions.' 1 of an Imperial tariff, and much has been heard as fo the injury done to English merchandise in Colonial markets by the bounties maintained by our continental rivals, or by the fiscal policy of some of the colonies. But though the details which will be forthcoming in response to the despatch may throw a flight on these matters, and may stimulate the desire for a mutually advantageous Customs arrangement with our colonies, the immediate purpose is to procure for our manufacturers and dealers that accurate knowledge of existing conditions which is the only safe guide for enterprise." Our commerciallyminded contemporary concludes that Mr Chamberlain's main objects are to remove some of the defects of English manufactures, to humour the colonial customer and to oust the supple German and the dexterous Frenchman. Some of the newspapers appear to have found considerable difficulty in making up their minds upon Mr Chamberlain's circular. The Daily News and the Westminster Gazette preserve an ominous silence on the subject, and the Times, with none, of its usual independence, adopts the view expressed by the Standard. The 8t James's Gazette however, does not -mince matters. " There is a certain appropriateness," it says, "in the appearance of Mr Chamberlain's despatoh. to the colonial governors on', the day which is the centenary of the birth of Carlyle. For the document is a distinct arid emphatic stroke in the cause for which the author of 'Past and Present? expended a great deal of his fighting strength. It is one more blow delivered at that Cobdenism which Carlyle, in common with Ruskin, with Kingsley, with Froude, with Matthew Arnold, with Tennyson, with nearly all the rarer spirits of English literature during the period of its predominance, regarded with so much scorn and dislike. Strange, indeed, that the blow should be struck by the states-* man who came into public life as a Radical of the Radicals in the early 'seventies, and was the colleague in the representation of Birmingham of Mr Bright himself." The opinion at the Agent3-Generals' offices and in the city concerning this much-

discussed and belauded despatch is that it must— whether any good or not— prove a grand advertisement for Mr. Chamberlain. The Agents-General were invited to send in suggestions with regard to the queries to be put in the circular, and the two most active and thoughtful of the six — Sir Westby Perceval and Mr Playford— contributed a good many. Some the Colonial Office accepted, and some.it did not. Amongst the latter was Sir Westby Perceval's proposal that the export trade from the colonies to foreign countries, as well as the import, should be investigated. It is surely, Sir Westby urged, most necessary to discover how much of the import trade from foreign countries is spontaneous and how much the mere corollary of the export trade. Mr Playford approves of the circular, and thinks if it does nothing more it will at least correct a number of misapprehensions concerning Great Britain's exports. Now all sorts of goods which really come from the Continent, but are shipped vi& England, are entered as British exports. This investigation, in short, thoroughly carried out, will materially enhance the accuracy of fiscal statistics. That in itself will be a valuable result. .