EXPORTS OF BRITISH FLOUR TO BRAZIL. [To THE EDITOR OF

THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sin,—As your esteemed correspondent, Dr. J. F. White of Dundee, has referred to me in your columns as his authority for certain figures which he quotes in the 'Spectator of August 29th, may I ask you to be so kind as to spare me sufficient space in your crowded columns so that all the figures with which I supplied your Dundee correspondent regarding "our exports of flour to Brazil" may appear? They are as follows EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM TO BRAZIL. In hundredweigh.s.

Total ... 1896. 1,421 ... 28,750 ... 1897. 81,439 ... 21,394 ... 1898. 28,170 ...

3,217 ... 1899.

3,569 ...

8,421 ... 1900.

49,714 ...

14,857 ...

1901.

65,027 ...

13,915 ...

1902.

53,662

3,967 30,171 ... 102,833 ... 31,387 ... 11,990 ... 55,571 ... 78,942 ... 57,629 (A) Manufactures of the United Kingdom. (B) Foreign and Colonial merchandise.

Shown thus, the trade does not appear to be so insignificant as Dr. White makes out, and when one comes to consider that this is, after all, only a small fraction of our export trade in flour, Mr. C. Booth's feeling of satisfaction expressed in the Spectator is not unwarranted. This novel trade has been growing steadily in recent years, until the registration-duty of 3d. per hundredweight on foreign wheat imposed in 1902 apparently gave it a check. The following are the annual totals taken from the Board of Trade Returns during the past ten years :••••••

TOTAL EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM OF FLOUR.

1893 459,000 cwts. I 1898

44.5772,000" 1.029805:000000 cwt,.

1894 1899 1805

6037o4:0ogg 1900...... ...... 11132681;000w 1896 1901 1897 1902 785,000 „ If the trade be left free to develop, there seems no reason why the history of the next ten years should not be as satisfactory as that of the past decade.—I am, Sir, &c.,