The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1888.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 278, 24 November 1888, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1888.

Tor tho cMune that lacks aauistanc*, For tho xi .0115; that needs res .stance, 3?or the it itiu. in tho <h_t_nco, And tho 1 ;ood that -we can do.

Already New Zealand is reaping the first-fruits of the corning years of plenty. At th c opening sale held yesterday at Chri_a:els_i-ch. the wool metropolis of the co>lo ny, 1,125 hales were sold, the prices ai. eraging one penny a pour;d higher th »n at last year's opening sales. This ma y appear at first sight an insignificant iwatoa? to make a cackle about. but wh-isa we consider that a rise of one fHiimy i_po# wool represents a cas.h hofltt!. *( £$%ej&x> distributed among; our farmers, ti'.e importance of the announcetoeni lis jsore readily appreciated. MrStaatl, than whom there is no better aqt'iWrity in New Zca-J land, pi' the annual meeting' of j the Canterbuiiy Charabet' of Commerce made a computation of the prob.aDle ; enhancement 01' values of the coloiiy's exports during i;he current year,, tfiis estimate of a p<:t.ny a pound increase in the value of wool is being realiseo 1, and no doubt his other' figures wilY prove equally accurate. They represent a gain to 'the settlors of !

from tallow, from frozen meat, and ,£225,000 from wheat. The anticipated receipts from these four products alone, therefore, amount to ;£596,250 more than was derived from the same sources in 1887. Although the colony may no doubt congratulate itself for the present upon the market which has been found for the surplus from its over-stocked runs, there is one very unpleasant feature about the export of this enormous quantity of frozen meat. Mr Stead's figures are based upon an export of a million sheep a year. Averaging these at 701b a piece, we have more than 300,000' tons of valuable fertilizing material, a considerable proportion of which is abstracted from the soil of the country, sent abroad. This will have to be replaced hereafter by importations of bonedust. The settlers North of Auckland during the recent prevalence of low prices for cattle, have become alive to the fact that there is a limit below which it is absolute improvidence to allow stock to leave their lands. Some of them have killed store cattle, cut them up and utilised them as manure for their orchards instead of buying bonedust; and upon careful calculation have found themselves with a clear profit in pocket over the operation. This aspect of the question is one that merits the attention of settlers whose lands are of inferior quality and require artificial fertilisers. Happily, there is a substantial margin between the export value of our frozen mutton and the price of bonedust. The declared value of the mutton exported during the first six months of the present year was about ios a ton. Even at this rate, however, when the cost of production is deducted ihere is not much margin for the replacement of the fertilising elements abstracted from the soil. Frozen meat is obviously not so profitable to the colony as wool. Nevertheless, it yields a better direct profit to the farmer than boiling-down as a means of clearing off surplus stock? although the latter process returns the bones of the destroyed animals to the soil. Beside the evidence which we have of larger receipts for our exports, the increase of manufacture within this country, the opening up of new lands and the development of our mines, together with the more general practice of economy, will materially assist in establishing a healthy balance in our ! national accounts, so that there are reasonable grounds for taking a hopeful view of the immediate future.