948 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
couraged. On the contrary, the Australian importer is quite prepared
 to give his best attention to commercial men from abroad if
equipped with accurate samples. It is in the big staple lines that
the London buyer finds his chief business.
The question of competition.—As might naturally be expected in
a British dependency like Australia, British ideals exert a wide in-Juence
 in commercial relations. The country’s industrial undertakings,
 by which is meant in this instance its manufacturing activities,
 are influenced very slightly if at all by foreign capital.
Undoubtedly there are many foreign holders of shares in the larger
limited liability companies, but the management and general administration
 are not affected noticeably thereby, and the directorates
are comprised ordinarily of local men. Generally speaking, however,
 Australia has so far financed its own factories, except in the
case of foreign concerns which have come here to produce established
lines of goods in order to escape tariff imposts and effect other
economies. But even these must be registered under the companies
acts of the State or States in which they intend to operate, the custom
 being to add the words “of Australia” or “of Australasia ” to
the orignal firm or company title and affix the “limited.” Thus the
local trading name of the Studebaker Corporation, an American
company, becomes here “The Studebaker onions: Mo of Australasia
 (Ltd.).”
By far the greater proportion of the engineers engaged in industrial
 activities here are of British extraction and experience.
Many of them are themselves British born, and it is to be expected
that they should prefer British machinery to that of American or
other non-British origin. In cases where a consulting engineer is
employed, as he is in all the larger plants, he acts as an advisor on
all questions involving the purchase of machinery. Other things
being equal, he will favor British manufacturers. There is growing
 up in Australia a strong feeling against importing engineers or
experts of any sort to fill high-salaried posts. This is the outgrowth
 of trade-unionism, no doubt, but it is undeniably an influential
 factor in the general scheme and one, too, which, as time
goes on, will be more and more respected by the employer classes.
Government enterprises—In New South Wales the Government
has of late evinced a desire to inaugurate industrial competition and
to that end is now operating a bakery, a timber yard, a quarry, a
brickyard, and several other plants, re output 1s in direct opposition
 to products of similar plants owned and operated by private
or corporate capital. This matter is relevant to the subject of this
report only in so far as it shows that even if combinations of manufacturers
 or producers were recognized and authorized as such here
they would be liable to the preferred competition of the Government
 should the Government feel disposed to set such competition
on foot. It is generally thought that this liability has interfered in
some degree with the fuller development of Australia’s manufacturing
 Ip ssinies
ereas the Government of the Commonwealth and the governments
 of the several States where the labor party rules are paying
considerable attention to industrial expansion, none of them Jus
as yet taken any decisive steps in the direction of promoting the
export of manufactured goods. In New South Wales, as stated, the