JUNE 19.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 723

Despatch.—Correspondence respecting a New Commercial Convention with Egypt.

Department of Trade and Customs,
Wellington, 11th June, 1890.

THE following despatch from Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies is published for general information.

EDWIN MITCHELSON,
(For the Commissioner of Trade and Customs.)

(Circular 1.) Downing Street, 20th March, 1890.
My LORD,—I have the honour to transmit to you, for publication in the colony under your Government, a copy of a Commercial Convention between Great Britain and Egypt, signed at Cairo on the 29th of October, 1889.

I have to call your attention to Article XV. of the Convention and to the correspondence annexed, from which you will observe that, if it is desired that the stipulations of the Convention shall be made applicable to the colony under your Government, notice to that effect must be given to the Egyptian Government within two years from the 29th of October last, the date of the signature of the Convention.

I have therefore to request that you will be good enough to acquaint me as soon as possible of the wishes of your Government in the matter. I have, &c.,

KNUTSFORD.

The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING A NEW COMMERCIAL CONVENTION WITH EGYPT.

No. 1.

Sir E. BARING to the MARQUIS of SALISBURY.
(Received 11th November.)
Cairo, 2nd November, 1889.

MY LORD,—I have the honour to enclose herewith the Commercial Convention signed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Khedive and myself on the 29th October last.

Your Lordship will see from the enclosed copy of Zoulfikar Pasha’s note that the Egyptian Government consent to a reduction of £ E. 40,000 in the light dues as soon as the new tariff is applied to all the other Powers.

I have, &c.,

E. BARING.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1.

ZOULFIKAR PASHA to Sir E. BARING.
Cairo, 29th October, 1889.

M. LE MINISTRE,—I transmit to you one of the two copies of the Commercial Convention which I have had the honour to sign with you on this day, and I hasten to state to you that the Government of His Highness agrees to reduce the light dues by £ E. 40,000 as soon as the tariff provided by the Convention in question is applied to all the Powers.

I have, &c.,

ZOULFIKAR.

Enclosure 2 in No. 1.

Commercial Convention between Great Britain and Egypt.—
(Signed at Cairo, 29th October, 1889.)
[English Text.]

THE undersigned, Sir Evelyn Baring, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., K.C.S.I., C.I.E., Minister Plenipotentiary, Agent and Consul-General of Her Britannic Majesty in Egypt, and His Excellency Zoulfikar Pasha, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Government of His Highness the Khedive of Egypt, duly authorised by their respective Governments, and, so far as Egypt is concerned, within the limits of the powers conferred by the Imperial Firmans, have agreed to the following :—

ARTICLE I.

There shall be reciprocal freedom of commerce and navigation between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Egypt. British subjects in Egypt, and Egyptians in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, shall have liberty freely to come, with their ships and cargoes, to all places and ports in the other country to which natives are or may be permitted to come, and shall enjoy respectively the same rights, privileges, liberties, favours, immunities, and exemptions in matters of commerce and navigation as are or may be enjoyed by natives, without having to pay any tax or impost greater than those paid by the same.

ARTICLE II.

No other or higher duties shall be imposed on the importation into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland of any article, the produce or manufacture of Egypt, from whatever place arriving, and no other or higher duties shall be imposed on the importation into Egypt of any article, the produce or manufacture of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from whatever place arriving, than on the like article produced or manufactured in any other foreign country; nor shall any prohibition be maintained or imposed on the importation of any article, the produce or manufacture of either of the contracting countries, into the other, from whatever place arriving, which shall not equally extend to the importation of the like article being the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country.

This last provision is not applicable to the sanitary and other prohibitions occasioned by the necessity of protecting the safety of persons or of cattle, or of plants useful to agriculture.

Tobacco of all kinds, tombac, salt, saltpetre, natron, hasheesh, arms of every description, ammunition, gunpowder, and explosive material are excluded from the stipulations of the present Convention.

ARTICLE III.

No other or higher duties or charges shall be imposed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or in Egypt respectively, on the exportation of any article to the other contracting country than such as are or may be payable on the exportation of the like article to any other foreign country; nor shall any prohibition be imposed on the exportation of any article from either of the two contracting countries to the other which shall not equally extend to the exportation of the like article to any other foreign country.

ARTICLE IV.

The contracting Governments agree that, in all matters relating to commerce and navigation, any privilege, favour, or immunity whatever which one contracting party has actually granted, or may hereafter grant, to the natives of any other State shall, on the demand of the other contracting Government, be immediately and unconditionally extended to the natives of the other contracting party, which shall, by the simple fact of such demand, assume, as regards administrative regulations of Customs, Coastguard, and Police, all the obligations incumbent on the State with which it demands assimilation.

ARTICLE V.

British ships shall, in Egypt, and Egyptian vessels shall, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from whatever place arriving, and whatever may be the place of origin or destination of their cargoes, be treated in every respect as national ships.

The preceding stipulation applies to local treatment, dues and charges in the ports, basins, docks, roadsteads, and harbours of the two countries, pilotage, and generally to all matters connected with navigation.

All vessels which, according to British law, are to be deemed British vessels, and all vessels which, according to Egyptian law, are to be deemed Egyptian vessels, shall, for the purposes of this Convention, be respectively deemed British or Egyptian vessels.

The coasting trade and interior navigation, however, are excepted from the preceding stipulations, and remain subject to the respective laws of the two countries.

All articles, from whatever place arriving, and whatever may be their place of origin, may be imported or exported in the vessels of the contracting parties without being liable to any other restriction or higher duties in the other country than if the articles were exported or imported in native vessels, or in those of any other State.

ARTICLE VI.

The under-mentioned goods, the produce or manufacture of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, shall pay, on importation into Egypt, duty not exceeding 10 per cent. ad valorem, viz. :—

1. Metals, raw, partially manufactured and wholly manufactured, including machinery and parts thereof, agricultural machines and implements, railway- and tramway-carriages and engines, hardware, and all articles of which metals (except gold or silver) are the principal component.

2. Cutlery, ordinary, that is to say, with handles of any material except gold, silver, pearl, or tortoiseshell.

3. Yarns, threads, cordage, and cables, nets, velvets, and all other fabrics, plain, open-work, or fancy, unbleached, bleached, printed or dyed, manufactured from any vegetable fibre, such as cotton, jute, flax, hemp, rhea, palm, aloe, or the like.

4. Yarns and fabrics as enumerated in Class 3 manufactured from wool, worsted, mohair, vicuna, camel-hair, or any animal fibre except silk.

5. Mixed fabrics of the materials enumerated in Classes 3 and 4, and also with an admixture of silk or waste silk not exceeding 20 per cent. in weight of the whole fabric.

6. Coal.

7. Indigo.

8. Rice.

9. Oil-seeds.