T y 173
caar. vi] TRADE RELATIONS AND CURRENCY 117

ree from the obligation ; and they refer to the agreement
between New South Wales and Victoria as to border duties,
as a precedent for reciprocal arrangements between the
Colonies. Lastly, the delegates who sign these resolutions,
whilst they agree that efforts should be made in the Colonial
Legislatures to provide for mutual freedom of trade, assert
the right of the Colonies which they respectively represent
to impose such duties on imports from other places, not being
differential, as each Colony may think fit.
The memorandum by Mr. Vogel, expressing the views of
the New Zealand Government, commences by an examination
 of the Acts which have been passed, giving to the British
North American Colonies certain powers as to reciprocity
with each other and with the United States ; it then proceeds
to discuss the question of treaty obligation, and on this
point it observes that ‘it is a matter which should create
much satisfaction on broad and enlightened national grounds
that the right of Her Majesty's Colonies to make between
themselves arrangements of a federal or reciprocal nature,
without conflicting with treaty agreements, has been recognized
 ’.
The New Zealand Government think it would have been
demoralizing to the young communities of Australasia had
they been taught to believe that reciprocal tariff arrangements
 between the Colonies were inconsistent with Her
Majesty’s Treaties with Foreign Powers, but that they could
override the spirit of such treaties by the subterfuge or
svasion of a Customs union’.
They suggest that the object of the Zollverein Treaty
seems to be to prevent the Colonies making such reciprocal
arrangements with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland as from time to time may be found desirable’,
and they ask ‘ why a Foreign Treaty should contain a provision
 tending to preclude the union of different parts of the
Empire ? °
They urge that in considering the subject, the question
should not be confined to that of mere inter-colonial arrangement.

“It may be for the interest of the Australian Colonies,
just as much as it has been for that of the British American
Colonies, that arrangements should be made to admit free
articles from the United States or from some other country.
It is desirable that the Secretary of State should define the
position of the Australasian Colonies in this respect.’
They conclude by pointing out that ‘ Great Britain must