The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 9, 1901. IMPOSTS AND EXPOETS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 182, 9 August 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 9, 1901. IMPOSTS AND EXPOETS.

The colony’s trade returns for last quarter have had a good deal of attention from thoughtful people, and the matter is of more importance when it is noted that there has been a substantial reduction in the London prices for our staple products. The Tirnaru Post points out that the first quarter of this fyear, when compared with the corresponding period of 1900, showed a shrinkage in the total value of our exports of over £700,000. Fortunately this decrease was slightly compensated by a slight improvement in the returns for the June quarter, the total value of the colony’s exports for tho three months ended on June 30 being £3,391,236, a,s against

£3,289,586 for the corresponding period of last year.- This advance of £101,650 was largely accounted for by heavy shipments of grain, especially of cats, which have uses leaving our shores in large quantities, both for South Afrka and for London. The excess over the June quarter of the I previous year, shown ip the declared value of grain shipments, is fully | £150,000, so that but for this item! the total for the quarter would have shown a decrease. A few other items also show an increase, the most important being gold £73,000, and butter £68,000. Among the classes ! which exhibit a decrease the most serious |are: —Hemp, £76,000; kauri gum, £71,000; frozen meat, £53,000; wool and sheepskins, £41,000. The record for a complete year is more important and interesting than that for a quarter, and fixing the end of June as the terminal point of the trade year, it is found that the exports of j New Zealand for the last twelve j months compare as follows with those | of the similar preceding period;

Tear. £ 1899- 13,368,600 1900- 12,637,170

The colony has therefore suffered a net decrease of £731,130, which is a a-iile higher thau the falling- off in she March quarter of this year. The following table shows how these totals are distributed among the chief products :

1890-1900 1900-1901 Wool and sheepskins 5,187.-225 4,155,53t5 Frozen meat .. .. 2,298,140 2,193,494 Grain .. .. 931,803 1,209,901 Butter and cheese .. 917,904 1,097,808 Gold .. .. 1,457,540 1,568,032

Hemp .. .. 350,380 174,549 Tallow .. .. 381,803. 332,360 Kauri Gum .. .. 039,914 482,409 Timber .. .. 219,213 259,762

It will thus bo seeu that over £1,000,000, or nearly 20 per cent, of the total decrease in the vaiue of our exports for the last year, occurs in wool and sheepskins, while frozen meat accounts for a drop of £105,000 and tallow £-19,000. This alarming shrinkage iu wool is the most serious feature of the year’s records, as but for it the total would have shown an increase of somewhere about £300,000. The total weight of our wool exports for the year ended June 30 last was 142,314,2591b5, as against 144,605,310 lbs for the preceding twelve months, a decline of nearly 2,35-l,ooolbs, or about 1.03 per cent. The average valuation placed on it was O.oOd per lb, which is certainly not too low, and considering the quantity of coarse crossbred contained in New Zealand clips, and the extremely low prices commanded by this variety, may easily bo too high, in which case the Gazette’s calculation of the decrease in the value of the export would ho below the actual shrinkage. But while our exports have been declining tho money paid away by the colony in imports has increased as shown in the following table: Ending June 30. 1900 1901. Quarter 2,027,77$ 2,382,403 Year 9,603,867 11,545,643

The year’s figures therefore show an increase in the value of imports of £1.941,776, concurrently with a decrease in exports of at least £731,000. Unless the spending power of the colony is increased by a rise in value of its exports its purchasing power must be curtailed, and a diminution of imports will be necessary.