VALUATION OF EXPORTS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14686, 7 June 1913, Page 10

VALUATION OF EXPORTS.

An interesting question was raised tho other day by Mr A. E. Mabin, the President of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. This was in regard to the present system of valuing the exports of the Dominion. Tho question arose out of a request from Mr W. Montgomery, Secretary of Customs, that the Chamber should supply a schedule of values of the chief articles of export at the beginning of each month. Mr Mabin pointed out tho difficulties which would arise under this system, as exporters did not always givo tho true f.o.b. values, and, further, it was difficult to put a valuo on produce sold under a contract for forward delivery, or upon exports sent out of tho country on consignment. Ono has only to work out the figures showing tho exports and values as given irt the leaflet issued fortnightly by the Department of Agriculture, Industries, and Commerce, to see that there is need for considerable improvement. Take, for instance, two items, cheeso and frozen lamb. For the twelve months ended April 30th, 1913—the latest period to which tho returns for a full year are to hand, and which covers tho greater part of the present export season — cheese works out at 57s 4d per cwt, as against 56s Id last season. But so far from getting a higher price this year, dairy factories havo received considerably less, through their mistaken policy in consigning instead of selling forward at the good prices they wero offered at tho commencement of tho season. The bulk of the cheese consigned has only netted 5Jd per lb, or 51s 4d per cwt. Lamb hns been valued at about 4id' for the present and previous season, and yet the prices paid in tho Dominion for lamb havo ranged from about 5d to over Od per lb during tho current season. Chce3o has, therefore, apparently been over-valued byover £100,000, and- lamb undervalued by nearly half a million, as a fair average value would be 51d instead of 4jd. The figures given regarding our exports aro apparently quite misleading, and particularly so as a means of making a comparison between tho value of tho dairy produce and frozen meat exports. A suggestion that Mr Mabin has made to the Secretary of Customs is that he should keen in touch with certain export firms, and ask them to supply the Department with reliable prices for the products in which they deal. If more care were thus taken to obtain the approximate value of our exports it would probably bo found that very considerable changes will havo to be mado in the values that have hitherto been published, and, on the whole, our exports will be found to be of much greater value than they have been represented. As the financial stability of the Dominion depends so much upon its exports, the undervaluing of those exports will certainly not enhance our credit.