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 examina- 
tion 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 re- 
cognized ’. 
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 arrange- 
ments 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 pro- 
vision 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 arrange- 
ment. 
“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