The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1923. A WIDER EMPIRE.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1923. A WIDER EMPIRE.

Discussing the work to be done at Ottawa a well known writer ,'iii" the comi>e of an interesting resume of the position says no part of the Empiile is self-contained. To a largo and some timeis a predominating extent the- Dbmidions are dependent upon Great ' Britain .to supply a market for the sale of their commodities.' This dependence in turn implies inter-depen-denciSi for, as will be shown Great ißritam is turning more and more to the developmieint of inter-Empire trade for' the disposal of her vast manufacturing output. From Britain’s viewpoint her exports of manufactures are' of paramount importance; and for that " reason the ' primfty«produMlHg Dominibrs must give fill., weight to this factor in attempting to reach a solution bii'their special problems relating to the sale of agricultural products, The problem of imperial preferences has heeding more than a mere adjustment betwefen the duties on. Gberit: Britain’s, manufactures imported: into the Dominions and the reciprocalritariff on' primary products from"her: overseas Empire. The growth Of manufacturing in Canada, Austrailia;' And India, and to a lesser extent' in iSouth Africa arid "New Zealand, has ’r'ai'Sed new difficulties in arriving at"'a suitable basis for mutual reciprocity. But the weight of in-dustrial-opinion in, Britain at " the present time i$ ’that 1 arrangements oan' be'madie tb the advantage of- the various units of the British Commonwealth in spit© of the encroachment of the Dominions on a preserve which Britain- had looked upon a s-hey own lip to., the end of the nineteenth century.i: To avoid the nations of the : commonwealth coming under the domination of foreign groups' it will be necessary for the Empire to : arrange for the flow of trade than has been possible with’ the continual growth of tariff harriers. In 192,9 the trade of the Empire represented 28.2 per cept: of the whole world''trade. .In IfTO the value of, the combined trade' of Canada, Australia, New 1 'Zealand, and . South Africa was approx'mately ■£23f) "millions By 1929 it .had inc’reasgd to £IOSO / millions;'‘'while in: that; year the trade of the Crown colonies and protectorates-: excluding mandated areas, was £430 mill‘on s. Allowing- for the rise in prices 1 up ; to 1929; these figures reveal! an enormous Increase in trade -It has 1 been estimated M-h ate-in 1929 the overseas "Empire ' imported about '£6oo" millions’ worth of manufactured goods, cf which £270 millions were deriv'd'from Great Britain: According tp the recent re-. rlbffcYof; th# Federation of British Indx’jstpies, about £2oQ millions of the bemaDder represented goods of a-type that British industry was able to supply. This estimate,' j*'Af'great'''importance. , Mr Soiillin stated at the 1930 •; Imperial Conference, that Australia alone imported from foreign countries cords valued at about £40.000,000 which could have been supplied bv Great Britain, rln rouiid figures r; tb of Fim-rire imports about 40 per cent, of 'Great Britan’s 'expori'abd nearly half her manufactured cbods. These figures show - the great importance of intia-Errjpirc. trade, but they also show the greet scope for expansion.. In spite of the fact that’ New Zealand should not -as a matter of policy shut her doors completely to foreign -trading (in view of the important-: foreign markets which could tap by maintaining commercial relationships" Outride the Empire). the fact remains that, with othe ,; units of the Commonwealth, she should he able to eaiooutgb greater trade with Great Britain.