£4 Per Ton!

On Australian Rice

New Caledonia’S

Retaliation

PRIVATE advices received in Sydney state that a duty of 500 francs (about £4) a ton has been imposed on Australian rice imported into New Caledonia.

Sydney exporters declare the impost to be prohibitive.

Trade between New Caledonia and Australia had been increasing recently and evidently this has stirred the French authorities to action. They are not to be blamed, considering the enormous tariff which Australia has built up against the importation of all French goods.

It is only another example of the effect of Australia’s fiscal asininity.

She put on an absurd tariff, and promptly lost the valuable New Caledonia trade, which was at one time worth half a million per annum to Australia. For a time it looked as if Australia might recover this trade with rice. But now rice goes into the discard, in New Caledonia, along with Australia’s other primary products. ===