Exports and Imports.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18923, 11 February 1927, Page 8

Exports and Imports.

The details of imports and exports which are printed in the current number of the " Monthly Abstract of Statis"tica" are difficult reading for the optimist. For the calendar year 1926 —the calendar year is perhaps not the best year for comparative purposes, ending as it does in midsummer, and dividing the seasons of primary production, but it will serve—the exports amounted to £45,275,575 and the imports to £49,889,563. Compared with 1925, the exports show a decline of almost exactly 10 millions sterling, and the imports a decline of only 2i millions. The excess of exports over imports in 1925 was over 2| millions; in 1926 there was an excess of imports amounting to nearly 4} millions. It is something, of course, that the volume of importation has come down a little, and something to be thankful for in so far as this may mean a reduction of the scale of consumption. (For importation by itself signifies little one way or the other: it is not over-importation that hurts the country, but over-consumption.) But the decline in the value of exports is of far more importance. The return from butter was more than Ij millions less in 1926 than in 1925, and this was not entirely due to lower values; the actual volume brought to account declined from 1,245,324 to 1,167,040 cwt. Cheese, fortunately, kept up well, and an increase of 7* per cent, in the amount sold brought in an extra £140,000. The beef exported declined by 50 per cent, in volume ami in value —a loss of half a million sterling. The export of lamb increased very slightly, but the value fell from 6} to 5J millions, and there was a fall of nearly a million in the value of the carcases of mutton sent abroad. The most important of the losses, however, took place in the wool market. The 596,895 bales exported and accounted for in 1925 brought in £17,738,738; in 1926 the exports rose to 631.543 bales, but the returns fell to £11,830,188—a loss of nearly six millions. Production kept up, on the whole, but lower prices cost the Dominion over ten millions sterling. The comparatively .-mall decline jn the value of the imports was the result of a small reduction in respect of most items, but there was a notable increase in the volume and cost of motor-spirit brought in—the bulk increased from 251 million gallons to 41 million gallons, and the cost from £1,840,552 to £2,417,090. The number of motor vehicles imported increased from 22,330 to 22,779. butlower prices brought the cost down from 54,146.433 to £3,632,277. The two principal facta in all these figures are, first, that the country has been consuming more freely than is prudent, more freely 'ban it can afford, and second, that the prices realised by the primary products sent abroad -ire the tMen-ir.ing factor in the Dominion's economic condition.