NEW GUINEA MANDATED TERRITORY'.

The former German portion of New Guinea, together with the marck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands, has been assigned Australia as mandated territory. They are treated in the appen to the chapter on German colonies, under the heading" Present ster of former German colonies and of other mandated territories."

PREFERENCE TO PRODUCTS GROWN BY BRITISH SETTLERS IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.

The New Hebrides are a group of about 80 islands, with a area of approximately 5,000 square miles, situated 1.000 miles 17 of New Zealand, in the South Pacific Ocean. Europeans first be to settle in the islands in the seventies, and disputes soon between Great Britain and France as to jurisdiction within the gr In 1888 a convention was entered into between the two couns which placed the islands under the control of a joint naval com sion, consisting of naval officers of both powers. This method control continued until February 28, 1906, when a convention signed at London providing for a condominium, or system of administration, by France and Great Britain.

The principal product of the islands is copra, but maize (indian or is commonly grown by the settler of small capital to tide him over period during which the coconut trees are maturing. Since 1901 French settlers in the New Hebrides have enjoyed preferential tre ment for their maize and certain other products in France and in Caledonia. The British settlers export their maize almost wholly Australia, where it is subject to a high duty.

In the British House of Commons on February 19, 1907, a men stated that the Australian tariff was limiting the number of Br settlers in the New Hebrides and retarding the development of Bris interests, and asked whether, "in the event of further representaties being made by the Australian Government with a view to Austral predominance in the New Hebrides, His Majesty's Government endeavor to persuade the Australian Government to encourage Brit settlement by offering a free market in the Commonwealth to Brit merchandise exported from the islands." To this the undersecretar for the colonies replied that the Australian Government was ab to submit to the Commonwealth Parliament tariff proposals whe would be designed to minimize the disabilities under which Brist settlers in the New Hebrides were then laboring.

62

At the colonial conference of 1907 Mr. Deakin stated, in referent to this discussion, that Australia had asked the imperial authoris in February, 1907, whether it could give preference to New Hebrides maize and had been informed that such action would conflict wi treaty obligations. He pointed out that Australia subsidized steams which served the British settlers and that in return the freight r on maize had been lowered by 75 per cent.

No provision has been found in the Australian tariff laws for 1 preference to New Hebrides products. The statement is often mad

61 See p. 222.

ea Commonwealth of Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Feb. 19, 1907, p. 708.

in official papers, however, that half the Australian duty on maize, which is now 2s. per cental, is remitted when the maize is grown by British settlers in the New Hebrides.63

The statement has also been made that there is an arrangement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the British planters in New Hebrides whereby Australia grants a subsidy of £4 per ton on imports of British-grown coffee from the New Hebrides."4

64

In March, 1915, the Commonwealth Government appointed a commission to investigate the trade relations of Australia and the New Hebrides. This commission recommended, among other things, that the whole of the Australian import duty on maize grown in New Hebrides be remitted.65 In the New Hebrides there is a tariff in which 10 per cent ad valorem is the prevailing rate upon imports."

VI. SUMMARY.

66

Before the adoption by Great Britain of the policy of free trade the Australian colonies enjoyed preferential treatment for their products in Great Britain and were required to grant in return tariff preference to British imports. But after the adoption of the free-trade policy, the Australian colonies were not permitted to impose differential duties on foreign imports or to establish differential duties in favor of each other. This restriction continued until the federation of the Australian colonies in the Commonwealth, in 1901.

The constitutional act authorizing federation provided for free trade among the States of the Commonwealth but otherwise left Australia free to determine its own tariff policy. British goods received the same tariff treatment as products of foreign countries until 1907, when Australia, following the lead of other British Dominions, established preference in favor of the imports from the mother country. The preference was granted on about half of the dutiable items in the tariff of 1907-8, and amounted in most cases approximately to 5 per cent ad valorem. It affected about one-third of all imports and about 60 per cent of the imports from the United Kingdom.

The preference to Great Britain was increased in 1911 by the extension of the preferential rates to over 20 items which under the tariff of 1907-8 had been subject to uniform duties. In the tariff of 1914 a further increase of preference to British products was made. Some goods formerly free from all countries were subjected to new duties under the general tariff but continued to be free if imported from Great Britain; some goods formerly dutiable at uniform rates from all countries were subjected to increased duties under the general tariff, the duties on imports from the United Kingdom remaining unaltered or being subjected to smaller increases; and goods formerly dutiable under the general tariff but entering at preferential rates when of United Kingdom origin were subjected to increased duties under the general tariff, while the preferential rates

Cf., e. g., Appendices to the Report of the (Australian) Royal Commission on Mail Services and Trade Development between Australia and the New Hebrides, Australia Papers, 1915-16, No. 213, p. 20; also Interstate Commission of Australia, Report on British and Australian Trade in the South Pacific, April, 1918, p. 40.

Interstate Commission of Australia, op. cit., p. 40.

Report of Royal Commission on Mail Services and Trade Development between Australia and the New Hebrides, 1915, p. 29.

66 See section on the New Hebrides in the chapter on the Colonial Tariff Policy of France, p. 221.

continued unaltered or were not increased to the same extent. The preference, based on the figures of imports for 1913, was equal to 6.3 per cent of the value of the total imports of United Kingdom goods favored by the preference and affected 79 per cent of the total imports from the United Kingdom.

The tariff of 1920 marked a substantial increase in protection over its predecessors, but also granted a marked increase in the preference to imports from the United Kingdom. It established 95 new duties, all of them on articles formerly imported free from the United Kingdom, and increased the rates both of the general and preferential tariffs, but the preference which British goods enjoy over foreign goods is greater in most cases than before. The following tabular statement strikingly illustrates the increases of preferences in the new tariff over those in force in 1911 and 1914:

Australia in granting preference to the mother country took care that the grant of preference should not result in injury to any Australian industry. In practically every instance in which a preference was granted the grant was made by increasing the duties on foreign products, not by reducing them on imports from Great Britain, and as a rule British goods after each extension or increase of the preference have paid higher duties than before. Australia has also made it plain that, while the preference was granted gratis, something in return was expected. Indeed, the grant of preference was made partly in the belief that such action would cause the mother country to change its policy and grant reciprocal preference to Dominion products.

Australia has carried on negotiations for reciprocal preference with Canada, New Zealand, and British South Africa, but only in the case of South Africa were the negotiations successful. Canada and Australia were never able to come to an agreement owing, principally, to the fact that the products for which Canada especially sought preference were of a kind whose manufacture in Australia was particularly desired and with regard to which Australia would grant no tariff concessions. With New Zealand a trade agreement was negotiated in 1906, which agreement was ratified by the Australian Parliament but rejected by the Parliament of New Zealand. The agreement with South Africa was entered into in 1906. Under the agreement Australia receives the benefit of the preferential tariff of South Africa and grants in return a reduction in duties, amounting in most cases to 25 per cent less than the rates imposed by the customs tariff of 1902 on imports of a specified list of South African products.

The Australian tariff of 1920 contains an intermediate schedule of es between the British preferential tariff and the general tariff d authorizes the Government to extend these rates to countries ich agree to trade reciprocity with Australia. British Dominions y negotiate for these rates, but the minister for trade and customs precluded from entering into negotiations for such reciprocity “if is satisfied that the economic conditions-and this applies both to e Dominions of the British Crown and to other countries-in such ominion or other country are substantially lower than those preiling in Australia." The Melbourne Age suggests that no country tside of one or two of the British Dominions, except America, can. ke advantage of the reciprocity provision.

It is interesting to note that, while Australia has urged at colonial nferences that the preferences accorded by the colonies to the other country be also granted to other self-governing Dominions, › policy has been less in harmony with this principle than the correonding policy of any other portion of the Empire. Every measure preference granted or proposed by Australia has been restricted to e particular portion of the Empire under consideration at the oment and there has been no instance in the history of the preferitial policy in Australia of the extension to one portion of the Empire a preference which had originally been granted to another.

(Bibliography on page 832.)

ADDENDUM.

Proposed Anti-Dumping Legislation.-On July 6, 1921, the Australian Minister of Customs submitted a ries of resolutions in the House of Representatives defining not only the ordinary dumping (i. e., antiimping) duty, but also a dumping below cost duty, a dumping consignment duty, a dumping freight ity, a dumping exchange duty, a dumping preference duty, and a dumped material duty. These duties e to fall on foreign products which compete with Australian products and which are to be specified from me to time in the Commonwealth Gazette. The below cost duty and the consignment duty will be equal the difference between a reasonable price and, respectively, the export price, and the wholesale price in ustralia of consigned goods. The freight duty is fixed at 5 per cent of the fair market value at date of shipent and is applicable to imports which for any reason are charged with less than the prevailing rate of eight. The exchange duty is based on a sliding scale by which the rate is 83 per cent when francs or lire and in the London market at the date of export at 30 and up to 35 to the pound sterling; 403 per cent hen they stand at 70 to 75; 50 per cent, at 100 to 105; and 68 per cent, at 200 to 205. A similar scale is Established for marks, starting at 10 per cent and reaching a maximum of 75 per cent when marks stand or over 240 to the pound sterling. The preference dumping duty is to be levied on goods of a kind prouced in the United Kingdom but exported from a country whose currency is depreciated as compared othe pound sterling, and the rate is to be the difference between the fair market value f. o. b. in the United Ungdom and the export price in the other country. The dumped material duty is to be levied on goods roduced in a foreign country from raw materials obtained from another country whose currency is deprelated, and the rate is to be the difference in the price of sale, and that at which the goods could have been old, at a reasonable profit, had they been made of materials of local origin. (Melbourne Age, July 7, 1921.)

During the war there was an active movement in Great Britan toward a modification of the traditional free-trade policy of that country. The causes for this change of sentiment differed wide in different groups, as did also the modifications that were suggestel But opinion was distinctly strengthened that the Dominions, whic had for some time been granting preference to British imports and which had responded so generously to Great Britain's call for military assistance, should be given a preference in the tariff of the mother country.

It is difficult to characterize accurately a contemporary political movement; the safest method is to chronicle and summarize outstand ing events and the chief pronouncements favorable to the forms adoption of a new fiscal policy. A sentiment favorable to protection accompanied by preference to the colonies, was reflected in the press and in the speeches of public men soon after the outbreak of the war but it was not until early in 1916 that steps toward a change in Government policy were taken.

CHANGES IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE CABINET.

At the outbreak of the war a Liberal cabinet, definitely committed to free trade, was in office, and the Liberal Party, in cooperation with the Labor members and the Irish Nationalists, controlled the Hous of Commons; but in the middle of 1915, in order to secure in Parli