The Times of Friday publishes details of the more important
portions of the new Australian tariff, which was to come into force on the 9th of last month. The tariff is a scheme for greatly increased Protection, and, as is already known, the minute preferences given to British goods are but a tiny help for British merchants to scale a new and very much higher wall. " The general effect," says the Times, " must be detri- mental to our trade." The duty upon clothes and toilet articles, which was formerly twenty-five per cent. of their value, is now forty-five or forty per cent. The deduction of five per cent. in favour of Britain still makes the duty against us from ten to fifteen per cent. higher than before. Carpets were hitherto admitted free, but a new duty of twenty per cent. has been imposed, with no preference to Britain. Many duties which were formerly ad valorem have become fixed, as in the case of firearms, bicycles, and carriages. A fixed duty of £27 los. is charged on a foreign omnibus, but a British omnibus may enter for £25 3o. Such preferences are derisory. " We fear it must be admitted," says the Times, " even by those who are most earnest in promoting commercial intercourse with the Commonwealth, that the course taken by Australian statesmen is scarcely calculated to achieve that result." We think so too, but we cannot pretend to be so surprised at the result as the Tariff Reformers, who have disregarded many warnings that the new tariff is exactly what many Australians have always meant by "Preference."
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