The Times of Thursday gives a remarkable account of the
tremendous zeal that is being displayed by the various Governments of the Australian continent to stimulate the export of the produce of the soil. New South Wales is straining every nerve to encourage the growth of wine, tobacco, and fruit, and to put the butter trade on a firm basis. Victoria is doing the same, the Government there actually taking the freezing-stores into its own bands; while South Australia is hardly less active. In Tasmania the Execu- tive gives direct action in helping the fruit trade, while in New Zealand the butter trade is the special care of the Administration. All this is excellent news for the British con- sumer, and means that he will be better and better supplied with the very best that the new worlds of the South Sea can produce. It is curious, however, that the colonists, though they understand so well the value of an export trade, do not realise that the really effective way to produce it is to allow the free access of imports to their shores. If they allow our merchants to bring them English goods, they will find those merchants determined not to go back empty-handed, and that they will give far better prices than now for Colonial produce. Free-trade is the most effective bounty on exports known to mankind.
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