"SIMPLY WONDERFUL"

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 33, 9 February 1915, Page 2

"SIMPLY WONDERFUL"

NEW ZEALAND'S PROSPERITY REMARKS BY MR. MASSEY. (BT TBLEQR4P3— PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, Bth February. "Considering that the Empire is at war," said the Prime Minister in ar interview, ( "the present prosperity of the Dominion is simply wonderful. Owing to the increase in the prices of our principal exports, wliich, of course, it has been impossible to avoid, the country has hardly felt the pinch so far. 1 ne year _ 1914 furnished a recoril to the Dominion in respect to the value of our exports, the total being over £26,000,000, and there is every probability tl-at this total will be exceeded during the current year " In regard' to the drought, Mr. Massey said that the districts that had suffered south of Auckland wore the Poverty Bay, Hawkes Bay. an.i Wairarapa districts in the North Island, and Canterbury, Nelson, and Mirlbo'-ough in the South Island- The fruii crop in Nelson, however, Avas a satisfactory one. Taranaki, Otago, and Southland, and tne West Coast of the South Island have "liot been affected. Generally speaking, the "rainfall had been greater on tho West Coast o£ both islands than on tho East Coast. "As far as this month at least is concerned, there will he no shortage of ships to convey our produce to the Old Country," added Mr. Massey. "Up to the present the position had been met very well, and the position *in regard to frozen meat has been relieved to some extent by the recent rainfalls, which, of course, will render it unnecessary to hasten killing operations to such an extent as would have been unavoidable had the dry weather been further prolonged. Unfortunately, however, the recent rain has not been sufficiently general to give relief in all tho meat-producing districts." \