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featureless. The course of prices has developed quietly and normally 

 without any of those sudden jumps in quotations which might have served 

 the purposes of speculators. 



"The ultimate decision in the long-pending dispute concerning the 

 customs-classification of sweet oil of orange has been in favour of the 

 importers, but it has failed to make any impression whatsoever upon the 

 market. The final result had been slowly discounted in the market-prices, 

 and as at the same time prices in the producing districts began to tighten, 

 the quotations in the United States were not only maintained, but had 

 even to be raised shortly afterwards, because the rise in the market-value 

 soon equalled the difference between the old specific duty of $ 1. — per lb. 

 and the new duty of 25°/o ad valorem. 



"It may here be mentioned that a Bill for the reduction of the duties 

 on cotton fabrics, which was laid before Congress in August last by Senator 

 Overman of North Carolina, had been amended on its passage through 

 the Legislature by having tacked on to it a clause amounting in effect to 

 a radical revision of the whole Tariff-schedule for chemicals, essential oils 

 and allied articles. Fortunately this Bill, which had been forced through 

 both Houses of Congress just before the close of the last session, has 

 been vetoed by President Taft. The proposed changes in the Tariff were 

 wholly inconsistent, and had been drafted in the most superficial manner, 

 and it is therefore to be hoped that when Congress reassembles no fresh 

 effort will be made in this direction, as such an attempt could only have 

 a damaging effect upon the whole development of business in our branch 

 of industry. 



"The expectations of increased business in Canada, which led to the 

 establishment of our branch-office at Montreal, have been amply fulfilled. 



"We may therefore sum up the total outlook for the winter-season 

 1911/12 by stating that we anticipate a further healthy development and 

 extension of our trade, basing ourselves upon the continued application 

 of our well-tried business-maxims, the ultimate aim of which is to gain 

 and keep the absolute confidence of our customers." 



Our New York friends have also sent us the statistical details reproduced 

 overleaf, relating to the imports and exports of essential oils into and from 

 the United States in the first half of the present year. 



From the Argentine Republic, which is one of our most-esteemed 

 markets, we have received regular large orders for our products, and this 

 in spite of the unfavourable prospects to which we alluded in our last 

 Report. We take particular pleasure in being able to trace a growing 

 interest for goods of our standard qualities in this country. At the moment 

 the future of business in Argentina appears in the rosiest colours, for the 

 crop-prospects of the present year are said to be positively brilliant. As 

 can be imagined, however, the prohibition of emigration from Italy to the 

 Argentine has placed the last-named country in a position of the greatest 



