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The working jewellers of Dimedin would respectfully submit the following facts for your consideration :— 1. That there are at present fifteen master-jewellers in Dunedin who have machinery to employ at least forty hands ; but, owing to the low tariff imposed, it is at present lying idle, while a large number of men are unemployed. 2. That nearly all apprentices go to Melbourne (where there is a protective tariff of 25 per cent.) when out of their time, and readily obtain employment. 3. A considerable quantity of jewellery is imported from Victoria, manufactured there. 4. Previous to protection being introduced into Victoria (18(50) there were only twenty jewellers employed, and two years after there were 120 on the rolls of the Society. 5. Large quantities of greenstone annually sent to Germany rough, and imported here cut ready for setting, the stone-setting separately. Would suggest that a duty of 25 per cent, be put on stone cut ready for setting. 6. Would point out that presentation cups, medals, &c, could be profitably made in the colony were an extra duty of 10 per cent, imposed. 7. Would recommend that a close inspection be made by Customhouse officers of all jewellery and fancy goods imported, and would suggest that an expert be employed for the purpose. 8. That an export duty of 2s. per pound be put on all rough greenstone exported from Now Zealand. 9. That there is seventy-five thousand pounds' worth of jewellery annually imported into New Zealand. 10. That any new pattern made in the colony, if likely to take, is sent Home by the importers and dealers to obtain quantities of a similar kind. I may add that all kinds of testimonials for presentation, which different people in the town are well able to make, never come through our hands for chasing or to be embossed. During the last two or three years the shops sent Home all the old silver to be melted and made into presentation cups, &c, which are sent out to the colony. There is really nothing to be done here in our trade. lam not the only one in this state. Most of the jewellers here will bear me out that lam stating only the truth —nothing more nor less. The reason why we suggest that there should be a closer inspection by the Customs officials of all. jewellery imported, and that an expert should be employed for that purpose, is that so many chains and different things are sent here so made up that no Customhouse officer, unless lie be an expert, can tell whether or not they are gold. Perhaps they are sent among fancy goods, and pay little or no duty, just in the way that other jewellery, as brooches, ear-rings, and rings, are sent here, and all the while the colonial manufacture is at a standstill. The reason why we suggest a duty on the export of greenstone is that the local lapidary has no chance whatever, because the bulk of the greenstone is now sent either to Germany, or to Birmingham or Derby. In Derby there are plenty of lapidaries, and the greenstone is sent to them to make up in the slack season. It is sent back here ready for setting, and the local lapidary is in the same boat with ourselves —doing nothing. Here a man makes a pattern, and introduces it into the native work. There is the fern-leaf, for instance. Instead of the designer being able to command a good price for his ingenuity and skill, the house procures a coj}y of the design, sends it Home and has it copied; and the first thing the man who designed the pattern sees is what appears to be his pattern in all the shop-windows. This is, however, the sham character —the " shin-piaster " —things which will tumble to pieces ; whilst the colonially-made article is durable, and has a great deal more gold in it. 150. Mr. Stevens.] When did the decline in the colonial trade take place ? —About three years ago. 151. Before that it was better ? —Oh, yes ! We used to have something to do then. 152. How do you account for it ? —The action of the shopkeepers in sending Home for all their work has caused such a depressed state of trade. Now, as I have said, they even take our patterns and get the goods made in England from them. While we were able to keep our patterns to ourselves we had sufficient employment for ourselves and our apprentices. Now it is quite the reverse. My own son could get nothing to do here, and had to go to Victoria. In fact, none of our working jewellers have been able to keep their apprentices, b*jlt have been obliged to turn them away, and they have become diggers or gone into the bush. I could mention half a dozen different boys whom I have known as apprentices. Now I see them butchers or grocers, or some in the bush —doing anything but making jewellery. The duty is only 15 per cent., and the shopkeepers and warehouses do not consider it much. 153. They undersell the working jeweller, I suppose? —Yes; the imported work is not to be compared w Tith the colonial. It is light, flimsy, and after six months' use it is worthless. There is hardly any gold in it. 154. Mr. Bain.'] Do you not think that the depression which the colony has been suffering from for some time has something to do with the depression of your trade ? —No doubt; but very trifling compared with the duty. 155. Jewellery being articles of luxury, people cannot afford to spend money on those things in a time of depression ? —I have known the time here—during a gold-rush—when there were scarcely a dozen people to be met in the streets, yet we had plenty of work to do. 156. So far as I understand you, you complain that these imported articles of flimsy make are supplanting more solid articles of jewellery ? —Most decidedly. 157. That is a thing which cannot well be regulated. There is something in it, that the public do not discriminate between that which is substantial and that which is not? —They certainly do not. If I may be allowed to say so, it is the quantity which pays ; and it is the large quantity that is imported that makes our trade so depressed. Jewellery comes into this country to the amount of £75,000 annually. It is imported by the warehouses here from warehouses at Home. I may mention one house —P. Hayman and Co. There is one brother in Birmingham and one in Germany, and these men are kept buying, so as to keep getting discount. This quantity of jewellery still comes in, notwithstanding the depressed times. If we had the quantity to do that they have at Home, we could compete with and give a better article than the imported. The public would not suffer.