ON BRITISH AND FOREIGN STATISTICS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 198 
from lack of differentiation in classification, especially in the case of the 
Crown Colonies, and in consequence much of the value of the information 
is lost. On the other hand, in the case of the self-governing colonies, 
particularly the Australian Commonwealth, a large amount of valuable 
detail, excellently arranged, is presented for the information of the 
public. The point to be emphasised is that while it is necessary to 
limit detail, greater attention than heretofore must be paid to secure 
differentiated knowledge which is of value for commercial and industrial 
purposes. 
Again, as in the case of the Annual Statement of Trade of the United 
Kingdom, and also as in the Commonwealth statistics and those presented 
in the Annual Register of Cape Colony, the countries to and from which 
articles are imported and exported should be recorded under each article. 
It is important, also, that a detailed classification of countries should be 
adopted. Thus, in the Canadian statistics, the value of the information 
afforded is diminished by the fact that on the one hand the countries of 
import and export are not shown in the most detailed list of articles, and 
on the other that the countries of import and export are themselves 
insufficiently differentiated. Thus, for example, exports and imports 
from the several South African States are merged under a general head of 
‘British Africa.’ In this same list the differentiation of articles is defec- 
tive; for example, it is impossible to ascertain the number of horses, cattle, 
sheep, pigs, &c., respectively imported from the several countries, since the 
figures are lost under the general classification of ‘Animals.’ The com- 
parison of the Canadian with, for example, the Australian import and 
export statistics brings out the advantages which would be obtained from 
a common system of classification, not only of articles, but of countries. 
One of the greatest reforms which can be achieved with regard to 
Imperial statistics is an agreement on a common classification. At the 
same time it will be recognised that while it is desirable that a common 
alphabetical list of commodities and a common list of countries should be 
adopted, it is clearly out of the question that the immense cross-tabu- 
lation which this would involve should be published in extenso by all the 
colonies and dependencies. The exact means by which the desire for 
detail and the necessity for compactness should be reconciled cannot be 
discussed now in detail ; the main consideration is that every class of 
goods which is imported on a sufficient scale, or is of sufficient special interest, 
should be distinguished on a uniform classification, and the principal 
countries from or to which it is imported or exported given, in some such 
way as in the Trade and Navigation Returns of the United Kingdom. 
E. Recent Changes affecting Import and Export Statistics. 
Apart from certain particular changes which have been brought to 
the notice of the Committee, and are recorded hereafter, attention may 
be drawn to developments in two directions, which have affected and 
will affect considerably the comparability, if not the accuracy, of colonial 
statistics. On the one hand there has been the growth of larger Customs 
Unions, such as the Australian Commonwealth and the South African 
Customs Union, On the other hand there has been the extension of 
colonial tariffs and the development in Canada, South Africa, and New 
Zealand of preferential duties. This latter development has necessitated 
inquiry regarding the country of origin as distinguished from the country 
1905. 0 
