COMMON TARIFF FOR ALL AUSTRALIA

The very great convenience and the many advantages of one common tariff for all Australia are so patent that Victoria would probably sacrifice much to effect it, but her delegates deem it inexpedient to consider any proposition desirable which would reverse or abandon the policy disclosed in her present tariff of "discriminating duties". As regards a "Customs Union" – to be effective it is mainly necessary that it should comprise all the adjacent colonies, and especially those on the mainland, and in which case, on agreed conditions, all duties could be paid into one fund for division 'pro rata' to population.

J.G. Francis, Memorandum to Intercolonial Customs Conference 1870, Victorian Legislative Assembly Votes and Proceedings, vol. 2, 1870, p. 701, Cited in Raymond Evans et al., 1901 Our Future's Past, Macmillan, Sydney, 1997, p. 157.