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8 except under some arrangement which would secure to the trade of this country | compensating and adequate advantages, and we had this further object in view : that it seemed to us that if any concession were made upon this point it ought to be a revokable concession, for 9 the reason that it was on the cards that China might at some future time withdraw | those advantages, in consideration of which we might allow the Customs tariff to be increased. My Lords, the only way of meeting such a breach of faith on the part of the Chinese Government would be by a corresponding withdrawal of permission to levy additional taxation on 10 our imports. |

Shorthand. — For Civil Service Senior (Old and New Regulations). Instructions to Supervisors. 1. Inform candidates before the time for taking up this subject that they may use pen or pencil as they please for taking notes, which should be written on ruled paper, but that they must transcribe those notes into longhand with pen and ink. 2. Inform candidates that when once you have commenced to dictate you cannot stop until the passage is finished. 3. Dictate the passages at the following rates of speed :— (a) 80 words a minute (old regulations). (b) 130 „ „ (new regulations). N.B. —It will be well to practise reading these aloud some time beforehand, looking at a watch or clock, so as to accustom yourself to reading at the exact rate indicated. The matter to be read is marked off into sections, each of which is to occupy a minute. The Supervisor will perhaps find it advisable to mark it off into smaller sections, each containing the number of words to be read in fifteen seconds, and to read one section in every quarter of a minute. As tbe candidates hear the passage read only once, the reader's articulation ought to be very clear, and the candidates ought to be so placed as to be able to hear well. 4. Inform candidates that rapidity in transcribing notes into longhand is essential, and note carefully on the transcribed copy the exact time taken in the transcription of each passage. Candidates must not look at their notes while a passage that does not concern them is being read. 5. Inform them also that the clearness and accuracy of the shorthand notes (which must in every case be sent in attached to the transcript) will be taken account of by the examiner; and that they must not alter the shorthand notes after the dictation is finished. Passages foe Dictation (Old Eegulations). (a.) At the rate of 80 words a minute. Takes 10 minutes. Recent events in Australia's political career lead to the belief that the new Commonwealth is determined to set its stamp upon the opening pages of twentieth century history as a living exponent of the most radical principles of federated absolutism. An insular government far removed from the long-established industrial and commercial centres, she is naturally dependent upon over-sea trade for the largest share of her prosperity. This is a 1 condition which no amount of internal development can ever alter, j Whatever may be her future, her geographical position makes it imperative that trade be carried on with other peoples separated from her by thousands of miles, but allied to her in the closest bonds of interdependent relationship. Notwithstanding her great size, and the vast powers vested in her recently-established Federal Government, Australia is still a British colony, and not an absolutely independent alliance of States. And yet how like such utter independence are 2 her recent parliamentary acts with reference [ to her shipping. It is one of the anomalies of the age that a country so essentially a commercial country should have neither the means of building ships nor the men to man them, but such is the case, and her vast transmarine trade, both export and import, is carried on in vessels owned and managed abroad. We do not mean that Australia has no ships. She has, with New Zealand and Tasmania, 3 sailing vessels whose aggregate burden reaches | 185,377 tons, and steamers representing 246,926 tons ; but these figures are so far short of the total tonnage required by her manifold interests that they need hardly be taken into consideration, except that perhaps they are the mere beginning of greater things. It may be knowledge of her own insufficiency in this respect, or it may be ignorance of probable results, which has induced the 4 Australian Parliament to enact legislation which j cannot fail to be severely prejudicial to the Commonwealth's subsequent prosperity. An exhaustive article from the " Times," published in our last Saturday's issue, explained carefully the details of the Australian shipping controversy. It is therefore unnecessary to enter fully upon its various points again, but in order to show how independent the new Federation is, or proposes to be, of steamship dominance it will be necessary to recite a few of the facts which underlie the whole question. 5 At the | time of the promulgation of the long-cherished scheme of Australian Federation, when, in other words, the Commonwealth Act was framed, it was understood by all who read the articles of federation, that Australia's shipping trade would be conserved at any cost, and that the danger of molesting or restricting it in any way would be most carefully guarded against. The wording of the Act is eminently indicative of a desire to respect the rights and 6 liberties of foreign-going j shipowners. By clause V. it strictly confines the operation of the Constitution and laws to "all British ships, the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and whose port of destination are in the Commonwealth." The wording here is so clear that misconception of the intent is practically impossible. It is simply a differentiation between coastwise and foreign trade, which is conspicuously observed all 7 through the Act. The most vital clause of all as affecting the present question, | clause 101 runs as follows : " There shall be an Inter-State Commission with such powers of adjudication and administration as the Parliament deems necessary for the execution and maintenance within the Commonwealth of the provisions of this Constitution relating to trade and commerce." Note well the phrase, " within the Commonwealth " ; keeping it in mind, let us consider the