SECOND CLASS ENGLISH EXPORTS.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 4993, 13 January 1885, Page 3

SECOND CLASS ENGLISH EXPORTS.

In a recent issue of the London Times •npears a very intrrcaling and valuable letier from Mr Arthur Clayden, who has just returned Home from New Zealand, which claims the at'ention of all in'err-ted in maintaining commercial relations with tbe colonies. Mr Clayden lays bis finger on a blot that has long disfigured this trade. He says:—" One of ibe dangers to British commerce is the suicidal notion that anything is good enough for the polonies. I have again and again had pointed out to me tbe vast superiority of American work *o English. A coach* builder assured me that he had long stood but against American fittings, but had at last to yield to necessity. The English makers would not, or could not, come up to the American lightness and finish. In the House of Representative*, a rouple of months ago, I heard a bitter ccmplaint ..uttered against some English manufacturers of railway material. Some of it Was mere tublish. Much of the merchandise sent out is at best but second-rate. Trusting to tmscrupulous agents, many New Zealand merchants pay first-class prices for third class material. If this kind of thing is not discontinue* 1, England may look for a discontinuance of colonial busin^u- In the article of clothing and bhiJ^m, the woollen manufactories of the cohn^are ac ually beating the home manufacturers. There is no shoddy in New Zealand goods. A New Zealand blanket has twice the warmth in it, and a suit of New Zealand clothes has twice the wear in it, of what England has been supplying the colony with. Another significant occurrence is one that I learnt just as I was leaving New Zealand six weeks ago The Belgians are sending a commision to spy out the land. AM- de Harven published a year ago a work on New Zpaland, and lectured extensively in Belgium on the many attractions of the colony. Tbe result is a sub* acription, under the auspices of the. King of the Belgians, amounting to £2,000, to , defray the expenses of a deputation to .New Zealand. The object is two fold—an outlet for population end a market for manufactures."