330

A—s

cent, 10,000,000/. worth of goods, or more than one quarter, came direct from foreigners, or if, as should be done, the goods manufactured in foreign countries but exported via Britain be added, you will find that of the 38,000,000/. worth of imports 13,000,000/. worth —or more than one-third— were the products of foreign countries. Compare this with the early sixties, when Britain's share to New South Wales was 4,000,000/, and the rest of the continent of Europe 200,000/. only. Taking the returns of New South Wales, it is alarming to find that whereas in the quinquennial period, 1880-84, imports from the United Kingdom reached 49-76 of the whole, in the period 1900-04 this had fallen to 3206 per cent. During the same period imports from foreign countries increased from 971 to 17-71 per cent. Australian figures show that there has been an appalling decrease in the employment of some sections of your people, and I wish to refer to the speech that was made by the Prime Minister of Great Britain the other day, wherein he said that in 1880 or 1881 the employment of labour on the soil of Great Britain was 1 million or over 1 million, and to-day it had gone down to a little over 600,000—1 think 630,000 or 640,000. You have lost in that one industry alone, according to what your own chief said, between three hundred and four hundred thousand persons employed. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : They have gone into other industries—into manufactures. Sir WILLIAM LYNE : They are driven into the cities or driven away. It is the worst thing you can do for them. I desire now to mention just a few maters in which it seems to me your workmen have lost employment, and it meets a statement made by your Chancellor of the Exchequer where he quoted the imports from British Colonies, and showed what proportion was imported of manufactured goods and what proportion was imported of raw material and food stuffs. I will take a very small thing first. Take matches :in five years the imports from Britain have decreased by 25,000/. in this one small item, while the imports from Germany have increased by 23,000/. Take metal pipes : the imports from Great Britain decreased 26,000/. I want Mr. Lloyd George to listen to this; T have had this checked very thoroughly : in metal pipes the imports from Germany increased 17,000/., and from the United States increased 10,000/. Then on wire the British imports have decreased 7,000/., German have increased by 10,000/., and the United States increased by 20,000/. On paint the British imports decreased 35,000/., German increased 1,000/., and the United States increased 20,000/. Then on stationery British imports decreased 54,000/., and German increased 4,000/. Then on tools of trade the British imports decreased 12,000/., and the German increased 2,000/. On wicker work the British imports decreased 1,000/.. and the United States increased 20,000/. These changes have occurred during the last five years only, and if we went back 20 years the figures would be far more appalling. Many more lines might be mentioned, but perhaps these suffice to show you the trend of trade, and how foreign workmen are supplanting the Britisher in Australia. During the last few years several of the Australian Governments have tried to divert the trade of Great Britain again to them by directing that in Government contracts British goods are to be bought, if possible. After an adjournment. CHAIRMAN : Sir James Mackav wants to make one word of personal explanation before you begin, Sir William.

Tenth Day. 2 May 1907

Prefer km'lai Trade (Sir W. 1. ne.)