556

A.—s

" ported from the islands." That, though put in the form of a question, suggests or provides material for a number of serious misapprehensions. I must call attention to the answer, accounting for some of its several misstatements by a too ready acceptance of the implications of the question. The answer was to this effect: "lam aware of the facts stated in the first " part of the hon. Member's question. The Australian Government propose " to submit to the Commonwealth Parliament at an early date proposals in " connection with tariff revision which will, I gather, be designed to minimise " as far as possible the disability under which British settlers in the New "Hebrides are now labouring." What were the facts stated in the first part of the honourable Member's question? The Under Secretary of State said he was aware of them and endorsed the statement. Yet no tariff in Australia ever yet has applied to copra, which is the principal export of the New Hebrides, and by far its chief hope; it was always admitted free to New South Wales, our principal and practically sole market, and, since the Constitution of the Commonwealth, has always been admitted free to Australia as a whole. It is imported into Australia in large quantities, in part manufactured there, while other large quantities are transmitted to England. Of course I know that the Under Secretary for the Colonies has no personal responsibility whatever for that statement. He is informed by officials, who have before them the Commonwealth Tariff. Copra has for several years increased in value, and the trade is increasing in importance, so that I cannot imagine how it can have been possible for anyone pretending to even the faintest knowledge of production in the Pacific, not to be aware that copra was and always had been free. The answer proceeds to say that the Australian Commonwealth Tariff applies to maize and other products of the New Hebrides. As matter of fact it scarcely touches any of the other products, as far as I am informed, besides maize. Maize, ground-nuts, and bananas it does touch to some extent. T presume members of the Conference know that maize is a frequent crop, while ground-nuts and bananas, too, have their season. They are not like copra of which one does not reap the full fruits for from five to seven years, after which it is a permanent product for many decades, perhaps 60 or 70 years, and of great value. The other crops are used pending the maturity of the coco nuts. There were, and are, duties in the Commonwealth which affect maize and bananas, but for the first two years after their imposition they did not affect maize at all, because those were the seasons of great demand in the Commonwealth. Then we imported grain from everywhere. The New Hebrides settlers in those two years did a thriving business with us, notwithstanding the duty. They paid the duty and still reaped very handsome profits. One might expect, perhaps, that this should be known since it was a fact that for those two years from 1901 to 1903 the New Hebrides settlers were not in the least affected by our tariff on maize. Then, what ought to have been remembered and indeed it was directly brought to the knowledge of the Colonial Office was that we had appealed to them in order to ascertain if we could not grant a preference to the maize grown in the New Hebrides, and had been informed that this would conflict with treaty obligations. We had been so informed. This reply is given in February, 1907; and it was about that time. It was after we had been bringing under the notice of the Colonial Office our anxiety to help the settlers in the New Hebrides by making them special concessions. That was a fact that was well known, and ought to have been stated in reply to the House when a question was directed directly against the Commonwealth tariff and its supposed continuously adverse operation in the New Hebrides.

Fourteenth Day. g May 1907.

British Interests in the Pacific. (Mr. Deakin.)