THE IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT AND AUSTRALASIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8544, 26 September 1907, Page 3

THE IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT AND AUSTRALASIA.

£(From Our London Correspondent.) LONDON, August 15." (The Mi-Red Route—Unfair Treatment of British Imports—Brit■i ish Consular Agents British "* Trade in Australasia.) Interest in the proposed "All-Red" route remains unabated, but no official information beyond what has already been given is, to. hand. The Postmaster-General was asked a day

or two since whether he had yet made any arrangements for the lishment of an all-British mail service to Australia and the East, and

if not, whether he could state Hie position of the negotiations in progress for attaining that object? The answer was: "Under the "contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company an all-British mail service to the East already. exists. lam not yet in a position to make any statement in regard to any further arrangements." The Under-Secretary for the Colonies was asked by Sir Maurice Levy, Liberal member . for the Loughborough division of Leicestershirei "whether he has. received any further communication, from the Australian Customs authorities with reference to the alleged unfair treatment of certain Bx-ifcish. imports; whether the order complained of; by which duties were levied on certain articles of British manufacture at rates greatly iii excess of their value, has now been cancelled; whether, under these circumstances, the excess duty already paid will be refunded by the Australian Government; and whether any assurance has been given that British manufactures shall not be subjected to prejudicial treatment in future.". The following reply was given: "No further com : munieation has been received from the Commonwealth Government on t lis subject, but their attention shall

ajain be called tn it." • , Further questions have been addressed to the President of _ the i>oard of Trade respecting the appoirtment of British consular or commercial agents in ,the selfgoverning colonies. Mr Harold Cox, Liberal. member., for Preston, who has displaced a lively ipterest in the subject, ask,ed Mr Ljoyd George whether any British manufacturers, other than those who were members of ilia Consulative Committee of the Board of Trade, had at anytime made representations to him. that such agents would be appointed? "The answer was: ,"Yes, evidence in favour of such appointnients was given on behalf of various Chambers, of Commerce,before. a Departmebtal

Committee, on Commercial Intelligence of 1897-1898. In addition, we -'liave recently received representations from certain British Chambers of Commerce, and a resolution from the last Congress of Chambers of Com-

merce of the Empire." The next en-

quiry was,:- "How.many" agents, it was intended to appoint, what salary would be paid to them, and on what vote their,salaries wuuld be borne?" Mr Lloyd George explained that these details were still.under consideration; he thought the salaries would be borne on. the vote of the Board of Trade. .. ■■ •.■ The same member asked "who were tbe,members of the Consulative Commercial Intelligence Committee? what manufacturing or trading' firms thay represented? and by whom they were selected?" The reply was: "The twenty-five members of the Committee include, besides myself, seven officials representing the Board of Trade, Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and' India Office, four representatives of the great self-governing

Australia, New Zealand/and' South Africa—and thirteen members appointed by the Board of Trade in, Consultation with the Association of Chambers of Commerce. The names of the members of the present Committee and the districts and .trades with which they are connected are: -Lord Avebury, London—general and financial interests ; Mr F. Brittain, ex-President, of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce —iron and steel trades; Mr T. Craig-Brown,, South . of ; ' Scotland Chamber of Commerce--"woollen and worsted trades; SirWiiliam Holland M.P. ex-President of the' Manchester Chamber of Commerce—cotton trades; Sir Albert Roll-it. London Chamber of Commerce and Hull district—general mercantile interests; Sir F. 'Forbes Adam* ex-President of the Manchester - Chamher of Commerce—cotton trades; Sir Hugh Bell, North-Eastern districts—iron and steel trades; Mr W. H. Mitchell, President of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce—woollen and worsted trades; Mr, R. -Thompson, Belfast Chamber of. Commerce—linen trades; Mr D. A:'- Thomas, M.P., South W a i es .—coal and tin plate trades; Mr E. Parkes, M.P., Birmingham Chamber of Commerce '— miscellaneous metal, trades; and Mr G t H. Cox, Liverpool Chamber of. Commercegeneral mercantile business. There is also a vacancy occasioned, I regret to say, by the recent death of Mr T. F." Black well, of the wellknown firm of Crosse and Blackwell, Ltd.,' who represented the London Chamber of Commerce, and the general provision trades. I propose to fill this vacancy at an early date by the appointment of a^ further commercial representative." . The Commercial Intelligence Committee have 'just issued their report upon the conditions and prospects of British trade in Australia and New Zealand. It is based largely en materials collected by their Special Commissioner, Mr R. J. Jeffray, who in the course of his investigations a couple of years ago visited Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, and other Australasian towns, the object of the enquiry being to ascertain the nature arid'extent of foreign competition with British manufacturers in the Australasian market. To sum up the committee's conclusions briefly, they show that whilst the proportion of the- Australasian import trade m the hands of British firms has fallen from 71.3 per cent, in 1891-1895 to 58.3 per cent, in 1901-1905, that of foreign countries has risen from 17.1 per cent, to-28.9 per cent. The greater development, of manufacturers and , industries., and consequent ability , to [supply their own market, ■ and the greater facilities possessed by American over British manufacturers to adopt their products, by Australasian conditions are naturally-assigned as being in tome degree responsible for the de-

cliue of the Home business, but the real secret would appear to be due to German "pushfulness" and the fact that British traders have deliberately chosen to restrict themselves to a small number of great main lines of production and to leave the field offered by the miscellaneous wants of a large community open to foreign competitors. The committee contrast the Germans' courteous attention to the smallest of orders with the curt independence of the Britist manufacturer, and broadly hint thad our business methods are tco stiff nn antiquated.