Decline in Exports.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2280, 15 January 1912, Page 4

Decline in Exports.

DUE TO THE WEATHER. SPLENDID PROSPECTS. - The Customs return of New Zealand’s 1 staple products passed for export duri ing 12 months ended December 31st, | lUII, discloses a somewhat alarming 1 drop of some £3,000,000 from the preI vious year’s total of £20,529,173, which j was a record. A great many deductions jof highly-colored character have been I drawn from the very insufficent premises | afforded by the returns, but the eon- ; census of expert opinion in Dunedin j seems to be that any comparison as from January to December of these particular years is entirely misleading, for this reason : that IUIO was an exceptionally early season, while the succeeding season was singularly late, and indeed is not completed now. One brusque representative of commerce classified the official comparisons and the deductions as “ ill-considered, ridiculous pillle.” The reported decreases (says Friday’s “ Star ”) are most marked in wool, frozen beef, oats, and, in a lesser degree, dairy produce. At first sight the drop in wool is positively alarming, being no less than £1,722,384, pretty near the cost of a Dreadnought. It is purely a fictitious drop, because the latest season is still some way from completion. Indeed one leading representative stated that it would not be fair to make a comparison till after February. The first wool sale in Dunedin this season was notoriously poor as to the number of bales on offer, but commercial men did not forget the fact that the wool was on the sheep, and would come into the market when the weather improved. As a matter of fact, a great sale is expected in Dunedin towards the end of this month. The weather has delayed shearing practically throughout New Zealand, but the wool is in the country.

All commercial men are delighted with the prospects. The wool market is rising, higher prices being obtained than in London ; on the plains of Canterbury and the leas of Southland and the uplands of Otago fields are whitening for a record harvest; dairy produce is dearer than ever before in the history of the trade; and from a producer’s point of view there is nothing \yhatever to whine about.