TRADE AND POLITICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11225, 24 March 1897, Page 4

TRADE AND POLITICS.

Orb Conservative friends have never quite abandoned the fond delusion that there is some intimate connection between the administration of the Liberal Government and the decline in the prices of our staple products. They are jubilant just now over an admirable article published in the current number of the Trade Bevieio, which shows that the value of the exports for last; year was some £435,000 less than the yalue of those for the last year. of the Atkinson Administration. They present the figures in half a dozen -ways, in every way, in fact, that disguises their true meaning, and then jauntily conclude that the decline is due to the “Seddonian policy” having “destroyed confidence ” and prevented the “ extension of enterprise.” This is, of course, nothing more than the stalest party bunkum, but it may bO s interesting to look for a moment a£*the figures from which our friends are drawing their inspiration. The two years selected for comparison are. 1889-90, when the value of the exports was £9,641,032, and 1895-6, when it reached only £9,205,659. Here, we are told, is a sample of the progres “a young and rising clony” is making under' 1 Liberal legislation. We find, however, that the shrinkage is accounted

for nearly three timea over by the (decline in the export of grain and iflax. The former has fallen during the six years from <£1,156,795 to '£374,009, and the latter from £452,602 to £33,507. There have been marked increases in the volume of other iexports, as the following figures will fehow:—

iA.ll these products with the exception iof gold have declined in value; but if grain and flax had retained their former position in the returns, the Ifcotal value of the exports for last year would have reached £10,407,540, 'or nearly a million more than the (point touched under the influence of ihigh prices in 1889-90. The truth is that the Liberal policy, so far from confidence” and presenting the “ extension of , enterprise,” has, in spite of falling markets tod long-continued commercial depression, encouraged settlement, atimnSated production and enabled the (colony to take full advantage of the (returning prosperity.

1889-90. 1895-96. .'Wool, lbs ... 102,522,185 128,309,673 Meat, owt ... 852,758 1,087,229 Butter, owt 38,371 61,644 Cheese, owt ... 41,310 70,433 Cold, value ... .£809,260 .£1,137,969