New Zealand’s Record Year

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6889, 20 April 1929, Page 8

New Zealand’s Record Year

JsJEW ZEALAND’S record year is announced in the results of the trading for the period ended March 31. Indeed, the position is so satisfactory that in some responsible quarters there is a fear that the old reckless might return and the country bs plunged into a boom period with all its extravagances. The exports for the year just ended £57,154,343), and also for the quarter just ended (£24,102,572) were the largest in the history of the country, and in both cases showed a very marked excess (£12,048,478 and £3,742,303) over the imports. It is true that if we go back a little, and take the average excess for exports lor, say, ten years, it is less—very much less—than the Dominion’s annual outside obligations for interest, and it is not a sufficient answer to this to say that our imports include each year a considerable amount of capital expenditure for railways, hydro-electric stations, harbours, roads, and other public works for the development of the country. .The really encouraging fact about our imports is that they have been Kept down, in nearly all classes of goods, to the 1927 level, when our exports brought nearly eight millions less than they did last year. On the other hand, a comparison of the main items of export for the last two years shows increases nearly all the way, though there are shrinkages in rabbitskins, gold, kauri gum. hemp, and timber. The following table appeared the other day in a comprehensive review of Dominion trade issued by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce:—

It will be seen also from the following table of quantities that these increases are not merely the accidents of the overseas markets: —

The farmer has been working harder, and working more intelligently, and if he is not able to control the distant market, he has at least seen to it that there should be no drop in price through a drop in the quality of his product. Indeed the lesson of all these tables and comparisons is the fact that it is the land which produces all but an insignificant portion of our exports, and so enables the Dominion to buy all the motor-cars, machinery, etc., which it requires each year from abroad, and that it is the farmer who enables the merchant and manufacturer and everybody else to live.

1928. 1927. £ £ Wool .. .. v. .. ... 12,961,744 Sheepskins, etc 1,550,812 .. .. 10,309,962 9,104,701 Butter and cheese .. ... ., 17,996,618 16,497,986 Tallow .. .......... 804,271 714,441 ... 1,228,842 923,262 Babbit3kins •.. .. •.. 582,148 682,658 Sausageskins .. .... .. .. .. .. 799,356 756,123 Gold 489,584 534,639 Kauri gum .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 240,139 278,632 Hemu .. .. ... .. 352,152 473,221 Timber ... .. ■.. >.: 377,024 ' 425,316 Apples 264,392 Other N.Z, produce .. .. 2,403,306 Re-exports and specie >. .. .. 1,528,116 925,121 Totals .. ..; 48,496,354

Goods. 192SL 2927. Wool, lb. .. .. .. .. >. 220,500,720 Frozen meat, cwt. .. .. .. 3,793,922 3,246,212 Tallow, tons .. .. ... .. ... . 23,875 Butter, cwt. .. .. .. ... .. • • .. .. 1,449,578 1,455,573 Cheese ... :»•: ... 1,492,792 Kauri gum, tons ... .. ... .. 4,394 4,674 Hemp, tons .. .......... .. .. 12,932 16,189