CO885-(6-7) — Page 12

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

C.O. 885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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colonies; and as its object is to show the value of industries and not of particular articles of commerce, any given class of goods may not be always placed entirely under one heading." Thus in the case of "Oils for Illuminants," those imported ready for consumption would figure under Class III., while those intended to first undergo a process of refining would be placed under Class II. Partly manufac- tured articles would have to be classed variously ́under II. or III. according to the following principles. Imports of raw material must include everything that is raw material to the importing country whether it may have already undergone a partial process of manufacture elsewhere or not, for the obvious reason that such partly manufactured articles are the raw materials of some manufacturing industry in the importing country. On the other hand, as regards export, goods which may be in a partly manufac- tured condition when exported should fall under the heading “Manufactured Articles,” if, although nót completely finished at the time of export, they have given employment to the manufacturing industry of the exporting country. But partly manufactured articles, which have not undergone any manufacturing process in the exporting country, would be classed

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"Raw Materials." Under this system it is possible that the same class of goods, such as cotton yarn, may on importation be entered under heading II. as raw materials for further manufacture, while cotton yarns which have been either spun or bleached or dyed in the country of export would figure in the export account under heading III., “ Manufactures,” as having undergone a manufacturing process in the country.

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In the Imperial accounts a distinction is made between exports of British and Irish produce and manufactures and those of foreign and colonial merchandise; and there is, besides, a "General Transit" account, which we are authoritatively in- formed does not by any means represent the volume of trade which passes in transit through the ports of Great Britain, but only the portion of that trade for which importers may have passed what are called Transshipment Entries." But the larger number of importers of foreign and colonial merchandize treat their consignments of such merchandise first as ordinary imports and subsequently, at their conve- - nience, and when they have obtained a market, as exports. Consequently it is clear that this transit account by no means represents the real transit *trade of Great Britain, which can only be arrived at by adding together the "Exports of Foreign and Colonial Merchandise" and the total of the " General Transit" tables.

However applicable this arrangement may be to the peculiar conditions of the trade of the mother country we do not think that any advantage would accrue from attempting to draw any such distinction in the general classification which we have recom- mended. We consider that goods should be treated in that classification simply as imports and exports, leaving it to the inquirer to ascertain from the detailed statistics of each Colony what may be the volume of the distributing trade of that Colony.

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We believe that, proceeding on these lines, the Colonial officials would have no great difficulty in classifying their returns in the manner we suggest, and we may add that we have not put this proposal forward without submitting it to a practical test. It has been examined by experienced officials in the Imperial Customfts Department, and we understand that it is considered quite feasible to summarise the returns of the United Kingdom in the same way. We trust, therefore, that if our proposal be adopted it may be possible to give annually a classified state- ment on a uniform system of the whole external trade of the Empire.

23rd June 1891.

(Signed)

A. E BATEMAN.

G. V. FIDDES.

( »).

(

H. HILL.

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T. J. PITTAR.

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