MR. MAC IVERasked the President of the Board of Trade, If it is the case that during each of the last eight years our importation of woollen and worsted manufactured goods has steadily and progressively increased; if it is true that our exportation of such goods has, during all those years, with equal regularity diminished; and, whether there is any reason to doubt the accuracy of the Board of Trade statistics on the subject?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAIN,in reply, said, that the statement contained in the Question was not altogether correct. It was not true that during each of the last eight years our importation of the goods referred to had increased, as it decreased in the year 1879, nor was it true that our importation of such goods had during those years regularly diminished, because in the year 1880 it increased, 1308 and in other years, although the value diminished, the quantity considerably increased. With respect to the Board of Trade statistics, those statistics, for the years 1873 and 1874, were partly vitiated by incorrect returns made by the exporters in the Eastern ports; but, with respect to other years, he believed that they were quite correct.