IMPORTS REDUCED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 118, 22 May 1939, Page 12

IMPORTS REDUCED

BY OVER £3,500,000

EXPORTS ANALYSED

"Evening Post," May 22,

..Frequent statements to the effect that New Zealand has been over-importing are not borne out by the Government Statistician in his returns for twelve months ended March 31. They are actually lower than those of the 1938 period by £3,656,112. This advantage, however, is discounted by the reduction in the returns from exports which were less for the year ended March, 1939, by £7,140,667.

The imports for the twelve months in review show increases in some goods and decreases in others when comparison is made with returns for 12 months ended March 31, 1938. : Decreases are shown in imports of the following articles:—

; • . . £ Wheat 327,625 Sgf* ■■••'•■::::::■:::■::::::: sji? Cigarettes 35,807 Apparel and made clothing . 458,918 Hosiery .... •■• 136,209 Footwear }^'JiS Table linen 114,031 Drapery 44,77 d Carpets and linos 194,504 Cotton piece goods 355,308 Silk and art silk pieces .... 230,740 Woolltn piece goods ...... '290.37 i Motor spirit 237,456 Lubricants 136,777 Paints, colours, varnishes .. IJ'"^ Galvanised iron . 31,206 Tinned plate and sheet .... 125.696 Tools and implements .... 15,392 Fancy goods 26,422 Wireless apparatus oIar! Leather ......... Aj,jo» Glass, glassware, china ...... 46,128 Paper ; • 6 Phosphates'and manures .. 168,787 Motor vehicles and parts . 960,861 Other items •• 691,084 'Increases are as follows— .'te, ■:::.•::.■::::::::::.■: ||g Crude oil •• • yo,^yo Iron and steel' bars ...., 222'nno Black sheet steel 22,028 Tubes and pipes iol'loq Kail and tram plant 496,323 Electrical goods ••• w%%i% Tractors and parts 6,00 a Dredging and excavating machinery in=V?e| Timber ...... 105-952 Books and music Medicines and drugs Js'isf Tyres, tubes for motors 123,983 Arms and ammunition 131,868

The dividing line between luxuries and necessities in the above items can be drawn by the reader; but it will be noticed that there have been some very substantial reductions in imports made for the twelve months in-review. On the exports side there have been the following decreases in returns from principal , exportable products: Butter, less by:-'£2,139,531; casein, by £132,693; lambi by £302,678; wool and sheepskins and pelts, down by £4,738,055. Tallow, £106,248. Some other exports are also reduced in re.turns. "Cheese increased by £537,245, beef by £331,154; mutton, £97,993; apples and pears, £363,422. There are a few other small increases in return. -'But the point emerging from the Government Statistician's analysis of the trade figures is values of imports reduced, but values of exports still more reduced for the year ended March 31, 1939, on that ended March, 1938.