AUSTRALIAN TRADE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2091, 10 September 1885, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN TRADE.

The first meeting of the newly-form(4 Australasjan trade section of the Lpndiq Chamber oj Commerce was held on. tiii 15th July, Sir W. McArfciuir presidug. There was a good attendance. ' Tlia Chairman, in an interestyßiaddrese, re. ferred to the great imjfrcance of the trade represented by the section. It had now reached, he said, a yearly tptal qf £115,000,000, and in it some 8,000,000 colonists were concerned. In Canada, on the other hand, with a \#>slation of 4,500,000, the trade was hot quite £50,000,000. Those figures showed that the Australasian trade section should prove one of the most useful and progressive of all the sections connected with the London Chamber. After quoting statistics relating to the volume of Auk tralian exports in wool, frozen meat, gold, and grain, the Chairman referred to the wine industry as being one which should be more largely developed, He thought the section should ask tiji' Government to make a reduotion of tKe wine duties in favor of th? colonies, whether they could agree upon a treaty with Spain or not. In the course of a discussion which followed, it was stated that it was proved to be a fallacy ..that there could bo no natural wine above 26 degrees in strength, and that the seal# now in force was based upon this assuror)' tion. As the Australian wines jkveragg between 28 and 29 degrees of strength, 'it was arguehd that a rearrangement of th# scale could be mado independently of any treaty with Spain, It wMunderstood that tho subject weuld bo dealt with at t future meeting,