made for them some more locomotives and machine tools for their railway repair shops. I have sent them also windmills, stationary engines, pumps, wheels, &c. ; and now they say that they expect to send here for many more things which they require on their railways. I have sent locomotives and cars to Victoria, Australia, and am now getting some machines made for that country. I have just shipped bolts, nuts, rivets, &c., to New South Wales. They have already had a trial locomotive and cars, and now ask for more locomotives. Cars have also been sent from here to Queensland, Australia. A large trade is growing up for America in these colonies. It looks strange indeed to see people of distant English colonies coming to this country to order things made of iron and steel. A ship lying at New York is now loading street railroad cars for Wellington, New Zealand.'

amount,

The succeeding pages are so far reassuring, that they Its show an immense predominance at present of the British over the American trade with Australia:

'Prior to 1852 commerce between the United States and Australia scarcely existed. In that year it amounted to but 208,000 dollars. The following year it suddenly increased to 4,287,000 dollars, and from that time forward has been maintained at a rate that gives an average for the twenty-five years ended June 30, 1876, of 4,551,408 dollars per annum. For the last ten years of that period the average was 5,402,439 dollars, and for the last five years it was, as we have already stated, 6,479,988 dollars per annum.

H

compared with that of England.

British

nance.

'While these figures show a steady increase they are utterly unsatisfactory when compared with the magnitude of the lucrative commerce England has with Australia, and which is now largely transacted by means of correspondence carried across our territory as the shortest route to reach her distant Pacific colonies. During the five years ending with 1876 her commerce with Australia has averaged 98 dol. 36 c. per capita per annum of the population of those colonies, while our commerce with them for the same period has amounted to an average of but 2 dol. 84 c. per capita per annum. England's exports thither have been 42 dol. 26 c. per capita, while ours have been but 1 dol. 61 c. per capita, and her imports 56 dol. 10 c. per capita, while ours have been but 1 dol. 23 c. per capita.'

The aggregate trade of England in machinery is predomi- incomparably greater than that of France or the United States. The value of the total exportation of machinery from the United Kingdom in 1877 was 6,700,000l. The exportation of machinery from the United States in the same period was under 700,000l. Our exportation reached a total of 9,000,000l. in 1875. The American exportation had fallen from a maximum of 1,020,000l. The total exportation of metal wares from France in 1877 was under 2,000,000l. The exportation from the United Kingdom was over 26,700,000l. The inference to be drawn from these comparisons is clear. We may have lost ground in certain special competitions; but we are still doing an immensely larger trade than any other country.

of the

manufac

turer.

In their last report on the engineering trade, Messrs. Matheson & Grant, of 32 Walbrook, remark : There is no doubt that individual trades will be Position closely pressed by foreign competition, and if with a British fair field the English makers allow themselves to be beaten, it is for the general good of the country at large that it should be so, and that prices unnecessarily high should not be paid. But though American tools, German hardware, or Belgian joist-iron of doubtful quality may be sold at low prices in England and in the colonies, such isolated instances afford no real criterion for estimating the staple manufactures of the country, and though England will not again enjoy a monopoly of the engineering trades, the resources and ability available are far too great to justify any anxiety that the extension of trade will cease. Nowhere is capital so abundant and powerful, coal and iron so plentiful or so well placed, and facilities for shipment so great as in England; and if the cost of labour be measured by the value of products, and not by the mere rates of wages, the English workman still distances all competitors. The low prices of goods sold by German and American manufacturers, which are from time to time quoted as proofs of British degeneracy, do not alone afford much clue, for English manufacturers are in the present time stronger to withstand the stress of enforced idleness than their rivals; and both in Germany and in the United States the immediate needs of joint-stock manufacturing companies render the prices and terms at which contracts have been made utterly fallacious as a measure of trade.'

German

contracts

executed

The

following observations are taken from

Iron:

It is no secret that one of the greatest, if not from Eng- the greatest iron house in Germany, fills its orders

land.

Our success in neutral markets.

Ехсерtional

nature of competi

tion.

by supplies from England. It is well known that the maker of an engine, or a sword, or a watch, is not always the person whose name is on the plate, and that a great German house imports from this country many of the goods it contracts to deliver.'

If we examine the general condition of the iron manufacture in foreign countries, we find that every country is becoming more capable of satisfying the demands of its own market. We experience an increasing difficulty in contending against the heavy import duties behind which our rivals have taken shelter; but we are rarely beaten in the neutral markets.

Messrs. Fallows sum up their views of the situation in the iron trade in the following terms: 'The depression in England has been aggravated to some extent by foreign competition, other countries having been stimulated to find outlets for their surplus production, but much of this competition is understood to be of an exceptional character, and not likely to be permanently maintained. The following figures show the total import of foreign iron into the United Kingdom during the years:

The figures of iron in bars include a large quantity

of Swedish iron (probably not less than 60,000 tons) imported for the use of Sheffield steel manufacturers and for re-export, which cannot be said to compete with English makers. There is, however, a large increase under the head of "Iron and Steel, Wrought and Manufactured," which seems to indicate that the more labour is expended on any article the less able we appear to meet the competition of foreigners.'

metal

and me

An elaborate paper was prepared for the recent British meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute in Paris by Pro- lurgical fessor Akerman, of the School of Mines at Stockholm. chanical The paper gave a general review of the exhibits of progress. iron and steel at Paris. The author directs attention to all the most important inventions of the present day in connection with the industry of which he treats. The names of the English manufacturers, including foreigners who have made England the land of their adoption, hold a place of honour in that record of metallurgical discoveries and improvements. The author alludes in befitting terms of commendation to Mr. Bessemer's process, by which steel rails have supplanted rails of puddled iron; to the Siemens-Martin process, which has led to still further substitutions of a lighter, stronger, and more durable metal for ordinary iron; to the success achieved by Messrs. Hopkins and Gilkes in freeing the Cleveland iron from phosphorus by adding rich iron ore or other materials rich in oxidised iron during the puddling; to the efforts of Mr. Lowthian Bell in the same direction; and to the process adopted by Sir Joseph Whitworth for preventing the formation of blow holes in steel by hydraulic pressure. We may