TRADE OF THE PORT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 56, 7 March 1923, Page 4

TRADE OF THE PORT

Interesting figures relating to the exports of the Port of Wellington for the past nine years have been compiled by the Central Progress League. These show sub* stantial advances made in the volume of exports of butter and cheese ; a shrinkage in meat and wool (as compared with 1921); and a decided falling off in hemp, attributed to the ravages of the "yel-low-leaf" disease in the Manawatu swamps. The idea of the league in compiling these figures is to set forth the extent of the export trade of Wellington, and certainly the position is satisfactory on the whole. Tho frill in the volume of frozen meat, however, from 81,840

tons in 1920 and 63,584 tons in 1921, to 38,757 tons in 1922, will no doubt in some measure be due, a? the league states, to decrease of flocks and a change over of pastoral lands from sheep and cattle to dairying; but there were heavy shipments in 1920 and 1921 of accumulations of Imperial Government meat. Wool, too, was shipped away more freely during years of Imperial purchase, whereas much of it was held bac« when prices fell at the end of that period. With respect to the fjax industry, the league holds that "it will be a big loss to the trade of our district and port . . . unless some immediate action is taken by the Government to save our national asset in flax." It should be pointed out that the Manawatu millers themselves have for some years past been endeavouring to discover a remedy for the yellow-leaf disease, and indeed are still engaged in the research. As recently reported in "The- Post,'' considerable acreage in the Makerua swamps has been abandoned so far as flax growing, and the land is being made ready for farming purposes, where it is not already carrying dairy cattle; but there is more labour and more profit involved in flax when the market- is normal than in farming. It is not easy at the moment to see vphat more can be done by the Government in eradicating the pest than has been and is being done by private enterprise. However, the league does well in calling attention to the matter and to the substantial trade of the Port of Wellington generally.