THE COLONY'S TRADE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 28, 2 February 1907, Page 6

THE COLONY'S TRADE.

INTERESTING RETURNS. Tho outstanding feature of general interest in the annual report of tho ! Council of the Wellington Chamber of ! Commerce are the statistics concerning | the trade of the colony, compiled for yearly periods ending 30th September. It is recorded that in tho year ended I 30th .September last the exports'"of the I colony made a further substantM''and I most satisfactory advanco in""S'alue, reaching a total far in excess of any previous twelvemonth. This improvement is largely, but not entirely, the result of better prices obtained for our produce. A table in tho report shows that the exports for 1906 were valued -at £17,734, <aa, or the remarkablo increase of £2,060,662 on tho previous year, of which £1,626,076 arises from wool and sheepskins. Frozen meat, dairy produce, tallow, gold, hemp, and Jcauri gum all show increased values. Further tables demonstrate that tho grsator value is partly attributable to j increased quantity in the caso of woqj, I cheese, tallow and kauri gum, and wholly so as regards frozen meat, while improved prices alone account for the enhanced total of b\itter and hemp. The average valuations of our exports of wool show the following remarkable expansion in the last five yenrs :—l9Ol-2,: — 1901-2, 4.84 d per Ib; 1902-3, 6.01 d per Ib; 19034, 7.37 d per Ib; 1904-5, 9.05 d per Ib; 1905-6, 10.45 d per Ib. The- year 1905-6 shows thus an advanco in this respect equal to about 116 per cent, upon 1901-2. The colony's imports suffered a docrease of ovor half a million in the twelvemonth ending with the 30th September, 1905, but the volume again expanded in the succeeding year, the value of which showed a total, apart from specie (which amounted to about ono million) of £13,575,121, an increase upon 1904-5 of £1,187,808. The North Island accounts for nu increase of about £500,000, and the South Island of about £600,000. With regard to Wellington exports, it is noted that the total in the past three years has increased, tlio growth amounting to £651,589, eqnal to about 24 per cent. The figures show that wool alone shows an enhancement of £719,959, demonstrating- that but for the rise in the price of that commodity there would havo j been no increa&e to record. It must be remembered, however, that in the year 1903 I'xcessively heavy shipments were ' made of frozen sheep, accompanied naturally by large exports of wool, sheepskins, "tallow, etc., and reeulting in a depletion of tho flocks of tho colony, I winch it has taken two yeajrs to recuperj atfl. The line representing dairy produce • <;howa steady, though medevato. expan- ! sion from year to year, j "Tho progress of ibe lrade_ of Wellingj ton exhibited by the following- tables is extremely 'gratifying,'" runs a paragraph in !■»«■?. report. For tbr tnennial periods 1897-3 to 1899-0, 1900-1 to 1902-3, and 1903-4 to 1905-6, the Wellington exports were respectively: — £5,928,942, 1 £7,011,653, £9,177,560. Wellington nn- , ports : £6,329,173, £8,906,963, 1 £11,041,981. Wellington Customs re-'v-nce: £1,399,863, £1,645,712, I £2,087,443. Wellington's expansion for | the last three years outstrip all the other j ports, whose figures in that period were : |— Exports: Auckland, £7,979,974; Lyttelton, £7,407,338; Dunedin £4,589,024. j Imports: Auckland, £9,658,118; Lyttelton, £6,645,632; Dunedin. £6.290,366. Customs : Auckland, £2.023,821 ; Lyttelton, £1,223,468; Dunedin, £1,280,644. -A drover near Wanganui found four of his sheep dead one evening, and could not account for their destruction. An exchange states that on each of the following days he lost a sheep, so decided that he would stay at home and watch. The pecnliar part was that the sheep were killed in day time. The drover watched and during the afternoon saw a young colt of hia catch up a sheep, throw it over his head and then begin to stamp it to death. To tho colt's playfulness or viciousness the locs of all the seven sheep 16 naturally attributed. At the time of the first commercial production of liquid air, several years ago, a number of untenable claims were made as to its practical applications. One of tho most valuablo uses to which tho liquefaction of tho 'air has been put is that of the subsequent separation of tho oxygen and nitrogen by fractional distillation and rectification. The possession of such a Bubstance as liquid air, however, has proved of much value in the study of tho behaviour of various metals at low temperature. Is is generally assumed, for instance, that at very low temperatures metals become brittle, and even fragile, and in numerous cases tho breaking of steel rails in winter weather hag been attributed to this cause. By the uso of a bath of liquid air it has been found practicable to test various metals and alloys at temperatures as low as 180 degrees centigrade ; and this has led to tho discovery that while many steels have' their tensile strength increased, their ductility lowered, and their j brittleness raised at low temperatures, thu is not always the case. Mr. Hadfield has shown that a nickel manganese steel can bo made which will be as tough, if not tougher, at 180 degrees centigrado below zero than it is at ordinary atmogpherio temperature, and this, too, wkhout material change in the tensile strength. Liquid air has also been used for quenching specimens after tempering, ana eomo instructive information has been obtained about the processes of hardening in this way. The much heralded liquid is thus 1 becoming useful in ways not considered by ' its original exploiters, and will doubtless , find increasing application of similar nature. —The Forum.