The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1903. BRITISH AND FOREIGN COMPETITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 206, 26 September 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1903. BRITISH AND FOREIGN COMPETITION.

The Auckland Herald, referring to thi above momentous question, says:— " The rate of progress in domestic exports made by the chief countries of the world is the subject of a compilation by the United States Bureau of Statistics. It proves conclusively tha; commercial prosperity has developed far more rapidly and in a far more satisfactory manner in the countriei that have reformed their tariff than ir England, where the conditions prevail i ing in the middle ot last century art still maintained. It is an elaboration of Mr Ghdstonb's famous phrase, " America is passing us by in » canter." The net result of the statis ' tics is humiliating for Britain. Taking the two couutrit-s that compete most seriously with Gieat Britain, the following figures of exports show how the relative prosperity of the Unit ad State* and Germany has outstripped that of j Britain, The figures are millions star ling:—

1870.1880.1890.1902. United Kingdom... 194 217 256 276 United Spates ... 73 165 IA9 278 Germany 110 137 158 . 223

These figure*, it should be remem berfd, are American, and are arrived st by taking as a basis for calculation tha five dollars are equivalent to on pound, In the Board of Trade annual statement the exports of the United Kingdom are placed at ovei £283,000,000. The difference is accounted for by the fact that during the jlast four years the Board of Tradf figures have added to the value of our exports, the ships and beats sold to foreign countries. Taking theee as exports, England still manages to hold the first position among the exporting countries of the world, if they are uoi taken, as the American statistics do not take them, this pre-eminence has passed to the United States. This rate of increase between 1870 and 1902 is as significant a tar : fl' hint as the figures themselves. Taking the same three countries the following are the rates between these years: -United Kingdom, less than 50 per cent.; United States, just uuder 275 per cent.; Geimany, just over 100 per sent. These figures speak for th< s, and it is to be noted that the small increase in Britain's trade is almost entirely in trade with her colonies. Another significant tariff fact is the abaence of great increase between 1880 and 1890 in the export trad 6 of the United States. This was the time when the reform of the tariff was under consideration, the outcome of which was the McKinley scheme. Since that tima the progress of the Stajes has been by leaps and bounds.