SIR GILBERT PARKERI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if the Government will make representations to the Cape Colony Government with a view to the reduction of the duties on agriculture produce, such as potatoes, on which the duty is £'2 per ton, and on live stock imported in the Colony from St. Helena, in view of its present improverished condition.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe Governor of St. Helena has recently been in direct communication with the Government of the Cape Colony on the subject. It is feared that the South African Customs Union Convention, to which the Cape Government is a party, does not permit of the grant of the reduction desired in 320 the circumstances, but inquiry shall be made.