THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11644, 4 May 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1901.

It will be remembered that Sir Alfred Milner, in a recent despatch, laid special stress upon the almost unanimous feeling of South African loyalists that the war should be continued until a completely satisfactory conclusion was reached, this feeling being in the face of the heavy losses under which they were still suffering. The publication of the Natal Trade Returns for the year ending December 31, 1900. is particularly instructive at the present juncture, for it enables us to understand somewhat how seriously the period ot unrest has affected industry, even in the most British and least disturbed of the two great colonies. We may be very sure that the loss suffered by Cape Colonists lias been much greater than that endured by their north-eastern neighbours. Yet Natal has received a blow from which it will take her people years to entirely recover, as will be seen from the statistics issued. It is very creditable to the Natal officials that they have carefully and systematically separated, as far as possible, the natural from the artificial trade returns. That is to say, they have excluded all transports from their shipping entries, they have excluded military stores from their tale of imports, and in all similar ways have endeavoured to preserve the continuity of their annual returns so that the actual position may be understood by the oidinary method of comparison with previous years. During the completed year of war and rumour of war, which dawned with the struggle on the Tugela and. closed with the border still raided by guerilla bands, the exports of Natal fell to £1,035,322 from £3,027,663 in 1699. Thirteen full years of steady and hard-won progress were filched from our fellow countrymen of the " Garden Colony" by the unprovoked attack made upon them by neighbours whom they had never wronged. We have to go as far back as 1887 to find such a small export amount; even then it was £1,056,959. Lying as it does on the seaboard, Natal has always shown in its export tables, and commercially profited by, a considerable amount of through trade belonging to the old Boer States. This naturally shows the greatest decline, but the exports of the colony itself, the results of its own industries and the source of its wealth, have fallen by one-half, from £l, 122,365 in 1899 to only £571,346 in 1900. This is the more enormous a loss as the trade of 1899 was itself affected by two months of war,, which particularly' affected wool, the leading export. In 18S9. over £800,000 of wool went away ; in 1899, only £608,711 ; but last year the industry was almost extinguished, only £61,115 of this article being exported. We may gather from this some faint idea of the state of the pastoral districts, of the ruin which has fallen upon so many loyal and indomitable citizens of the Empire. That they should not have suffered in vain, that they should never again be exposed to such invasion, is their unfaltering demand, and one which every man who is blessed by Imperial peace owes to them to sustain. Fortunately for Natal, her sugar industry was mainly located in coastal districts, to which (he invaders did not penetrate, and where the Afrikander Bond had few adherents. It came safely through the threatening dangers and prevented her export tables from being a woi'ul picture indeed. Singular to relate, in connection with the sugar industry, the item of "rum" finds place to the extent of nearly 20,000 gallons, though none was exported in previous years. As largely increased quantities were imported, there is a considerable amount of speculation as to the cause of the vagary, and as to what this " rum" really was. The same coastal security which sheltered the sugar industry, combined with a favourable season, gave a phenomenal maize yield, one of the bright spots in the tempestuous year. Large amounts of maize were imported, but less by a Lhird than in previous years, while the exports of maize increased from ~ome £3000 to close upon £60,000. The imports of Natal increased for the year by half-a-million sterling over 1899, but it has been obviously impossible to exclude any but' offi-cially-designated "military stores" from the returns, and the imports necessarily include all private purchases of imported articles made in the colony by members of the military forces. When it is considered that many thousands of customers have thus been acquired, the fallingoff in the colonial purchasing proper can be seen. Ail classes of machinery and all classes of iron, excepting non-corrugated sheet iron, |

j fell off considerably. Fencing wire i declined 50 per cent,, all agricultural and pastoral pursuits being tot a complete standstill for months I throughout a large tract of counI try, and having not yet entirely rei turned to activity. The cause of the i increased import is further indicated i when we see that grains and eatables show an exceptional demand. The grain import rose 57 per cent., tinned provisions and oilmen's stores over 50 per cent., and beef, veal and mutton from '200 to 300 per cent. Even dairy produce, upon which Natal has prided itself, was imported in large quantities ; while, to the marked advantage of the revenue, spirits and tobacco came in with a rush From the 700 per cent, increase in rum, we get an inkling of the favourite alcoholic "nip" of men in the field : that gin actually fell off similarly shows that the man in khaki, at any rate, has not been having any. It is evident from all this that there was a great decline, probably amounting to fully one-half, in goods imported for the use of Natal itself. Coal-consumers, however, had to buy over 30.000 tons, for the closing of the Dundee collieries by the Boers compelled Natal to rely temporarily upon oversea pits. Finally, item most telling of the returns, barely £500 of Natal produce was sold in the Transvaal,which has been a leading and profitable customer. Yet, thanks to the liquor and tobacco imports abovementioned. the Natal Customs revenue for 1900 was £051,833, over a quarter of a million sterling in excess of what it was in 1899. Our loyal and plucky fellow colonists gather from their public solvency an infinite satisfaction, and boast of their colony '" emerging so successfully from the troubles of the past 18 months —troubles of which she willingly and gallantly bore the brunt." To which thoroughly British courage we, who for all that we have tried to do have been safe and secure from foreign invasion, most heartily doff our hats.