NEW SYSTEM OF PUBLISHING ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY STATISTICS OF TRADE

In pursuance of instructions received from the Inspector General of Customs a new system of rendering and publishing the trade statistics which are compiled and issued by the Maritime Costoms Service has been inaugurated, beginning with the Trade Returns for March quarter 1920.

The more important changes which have been introduced are, as regards the Annual Returns, the elimiuation of the former Part IT, the volume in which the annual statistics of each port have hitherto been brought together; and, as far as the Quarterly Returns are concerned, the discontinuance of publication of the quarterly returns of all the ports in one combined bound volume. Hereafter, the latter will be issued as separate pamphlets only, one for each port, and published separately as soon after the close of each successive quarter as possible. The opportunity has been taken to improve the arrange-

ment of the various tables published in the Returns, and a com-

parative column has been added to the tables of the June, September, and December quarters showing cumulative figures from the 1st January to the end of the quarter concerned for the current and two preceding years. The December quarter pamphlet, moreover, will also include the Annual Trade Report in English and Chinese of the port concerned and certain annual tables. It will thus be seen that the December quarter returns will contain all the information hitherto published in Part II of the aunual volume, which will therefore cease to be issued. No modifications are contemplated in the former Part III, which will hereafter become Part IL It is expected that the changes explained above will considerably advance the date of publication of the quarterly and annual trade statistics.

A list of the Customs statistical publications as they will hereafter be issued, and the prices at which they are for sale, follows hereunder: