Page:The empire and the century.djvu/88

 Already Australia and New Zealand supply the South African demand for frozen meat and butter, and in normal seasons Australia can secure the market for wheat and flour. At no distant date we may look forward to her providing the Eastern possessions of the Empire with most of the commodities they now buy from the foreigner.

There are, moreover, numerous cases where Colonies have wrested back from foreign countries trade that had been captured from Great Britain and temporarily lost to the Empire. In fact, we begin to see the natural and industrial resources of the Colonies contribute to the defence of the trade of the Empire exactly in the manner we all desire that their financial resources should, in course of time, contribute to its naval defence.

In order to add a touch of human interest to these lifeless figures and percentages, let us inquire for a moment of what Imperial exports and imports consist.

Great Britain circulates through the Empire everything which new countries require for their development and protection, and which people in new countries need for their maintenance and comfort—arms and ammunition, machinery and tools of all kinds, railway material telegraph and electrical appliances, steel-work for construction, bridges, water and gas pipes, ready-made clothing, cottons, woollens, soap and candles, carriages and saddlery, books and pictures, glass and china, household furniture, tinned and preserved provisions in infinite variety, patent medicines, stationery and musical instruments—in fact, all the thousand necessaries and luxuries of civilized life.

In return the Colonies send us all the 'wealth of Ormuz and of Ind,' as well as food-stuffs and raw material for our manufactures.

Canada and Newfoundland send us meat, corn, flour, cheese, bacon and hams, salt-fish, eggs, apples, furs and skins, leather, and timber.

Australia and New Zealand send us wool, gold, corn,