THE VALUE OF COLONIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 214, 3 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE VALUE OF COLONIES.

If there be any English workman who has had hi& biauis addled by f-> ilish talk (says the Globe) ibout oui colonies being worth-le-s encumbiances, ho sli'mifd study a little t,ibie given vi the annual iron Uvula xep'iit issued by Messrs Boiling ;uid Lowe. He will there t>ee it stated that "the colonies and India are tho backbone of our trade," and this assertion is fully borne out by the figures that follow : — During the first 11 mouths of 1885 Australia bought iron from us to the extent of £31039,107, India- coining nett with purchases to the amount of £2,570,010,. followed 'i-by Canada with £1,130.004, aud 1 ' South jr Africa with £204,525. These four divisions 'of the Empire were, therefore, our customers to the amount of nearly seven million* •terling for the article pi iron alone. Thii is a big fact*. ,and an unpleanant one, too, for those .whose policy nuke for the lopping off jJI distant poMesMoui'on account of the responsibilities they involve. Perhaps it would be said that these dependencies would <till deal with us after separation. That theory doe,s not square with the fact that the United States, possessing a population of «0mnv50,000,000, only purchased iron from us in tho period above specified to the value of £3,779,359. Now, had the Yankees bought ax largely in proportion a* tha 5,000,000 of Canadians, they would have dealt with us to the value of €30,391,070. Clearly, therefore, it does pay to have colonies md depondeuciej attached to a manufacturing country.