DUTIES ON WOOL.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1952, 27 May 1880, Page 3

DUTIES ON WOOL.

The following is the text of a petition forwarded by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce to" the Chambers of Commerce at Wellington, Christohurch, and Napier, which we have been requested to publish:— "To his Excellency the President of the United States of America. " We, the undersigned, representing the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Auckland, Provincial District of Auckland, in the colony of New Zealand, beiDg the trade medium through which the mercantile community of this province expresses its wants, do most respectfully desire to call your attention to the question of a reduction of the duty on the importation of wool into the United States, sustaining this request on the following grounds : " Firstly—We have done all in our power to fo3tor trade with your great nation by giving your most powerful steamship company an eight years' subsidy for carrying the mails between San Francisco and this port, thereby creating and main' aining a highway for the interchange of merchandise. " Secondly —We have never legislated against the importation of American merchandise, taking from you'y early a large amountof ! goods, and paying for the same in cash, which represents a manufactured article, instead of returning to you raw material, to give your manufacturers and laborers profitable work, you again shipping a portion of the same back to us in the form of a manufactured article, thereby also encouraging your mercantile marine. " Thirdly—From what we can learn of your woollen industry, if our wools and those of Australia, which are fine, and of a high grade, could be imported into your country at a moderate duty, we are led to believe that, mixed with your own low grades of wool, a better fabric could bo manufactured for the cost than any which you now import, thus being able to supply, not only your own home consumption, but also to export largely to these colonieß, thereby increasing tho demand for wool of your own production. " Fourthly—We do not wish to propose a meanß by which tho above can be accomplished, but think that if the classification on the higher grades, or wools produced in these colonies, could bo done away with, making all duties on wools an ad valorem duty only, at a figure that would admit our high grades without injuring your own production of low grades, the matter would be satisfactorily adjusted for tho honest of both."