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mechanics would indeed sorely need such help under the terrible change in their position. Whether making everything dearer would help them at all is quite another question. Free Traders would argue that a general tariff would only add to their burdens. Here, again, it has to be borne in mind that our imports of foreign manufactures are only a tithe of our home production, and that the tax of 10 per cent., or £15,000,000 a year, on our imports, proposed by the Tariff Reformers, would mean a tax beyond of possibly £45,000,000 or £60,000,000 a year on the British consumer, of which, say, one-quarter only would reach the Treasury. It has to be remembered also that these so-called imported manufactures are in almost every case really the raw materials of some other manufacture or industry at home. In looking through the above analysis of manufactures we can only think of earthenware and glass that are not so, and even they presumably yield a profit to our china shops, which would decrease under Protection.
Miscellaneous Imports.
To finish our table of imports we give for completeness only, and as needing no comment, a return of our miscellaneous imports, two-thirds of which represents the value of the Parcels Post.
| From Foreign Countries. |
From Self- Governing Colonies. |
From Other British Possessions. |
Total. | |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Miscellaneous and unclassified | 1,863,269 | 179,782 | 399,575 | 2,442,626 |
| Percentage | 76.3 | 7.3 | 16.4 |
