AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 225, 20 September 1905, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

• ■ AMERICAN PROFITS FROM NEW ZEALAND. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, tbilVday. t During the year 1904 agricultural plements to the value of £82.388! were imported into this country frem America. According to a local authority (says the "Press"} who is interested in metal manufacturing, these figures, j when closely examined, give a ver\ r good illustration of how the values of im- ; ported machines rise in course of transit, and how New Zealand is affected from a manufacturing point of view through the American importations. Approxij mately last year 1200 reapers and bindI ers were landed in New; from j America. The value of- these' machines in New York is roughly estimated at £24,000 in New Zealand, £30.900, while I the selling value (that is, the price at j which, they are disposed, of to-the farm? I \er)psj figured out at £48.000. The -ost of "material used in the manufacture of these machines is set down at £ 12,000, and of labour £0600, making a total of £ 21,600. In New* Zealand, wliere higher wages obtain, the labour required for the manufacture of the same number of machines would' have meant an expenditure of £14.400. Similar comparisons apply in the case, of mowers and reapers. None, o? the machines mentioned are at present manufactured in New Zealand. The same authority lias been calculating what the American invasion meant in respect of imported machines of a type which are manufactured in New Zealand. The 1000 drills landed in the colony from America in 1904 from American had a value of £22,500 when shipped (at, say, the port of New York); !in New Zealand their value jumped to £28,000, and the selling value approximately ultimately readied the very rej spec-table sum of £42.500. The cost of I American labour used in producing, these machines and cost of material was about £19,000. The 800 cultivators imported had a i value on board ship at New York «£• £12,000. in New Zealand the landing value was approximately £14,400, and the aggregate selling price to the farmer £23,400, the labour and material used necessitating an expenditure of £4000 ad £3200 respectively. It is calculated that in New Zealand the labour necessary to manufacture the same number of machines would have meant an expenditure of £ 8000. Comparisons of a like nature were made in respect of cultivators, ploughs, disc harrows, fine harrows, rakes, and spring teeth harrows. Finally, it is estimated that the selling value of the £ 82,383 worth' of implements imported was £ 144,910. If the wLole of the machines imported had been manufactured in New Zealand employment would have been given for J one year to 500 men- who would have received approximately £ 47,430 in I wages. "