EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 23

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.

THE COLONY’S TRADE. The value of the imports at the several ports of New Zealand for the quarter ending December 31st, 1900, including £122,904 worth of specie, amounted to £2,999,235, as compared with £2,400,460 for the last quarter of 1899. The imports from the United Kingdom for the two periods show an increase for the last quarter of 1900 of £402,696, the total value of the imports in that quarter being £1,772,829. The increase in the imports from Australia aud Tasmania was £57,898, the only individual increase being in the case of Queensland. The imports from that colony were during the last quarter of 1900 £31,026, as against £42,293 for the corresponding quarter of 1899. From the British Pacific Islands the import has improved by £50,090. Fiji was responsible for an increase of more than this amount, the aggregate being reduced by an apparent falling-off in the imports of guano from Malden Island. The import trade with India and the British colonies in Asia shows, no appreciable increase; that with Canada and British Columbia, to judge by the figures, has suffered a considerable check. None of the other figures call for particular attention, with the exception, perhaps, of the imports from tha east coast of the United States, which have risen from £189,053 for the December quarter of 1899 to £261,591 for the last quarter of 1900. Asiatic imports also show an all-round improvement. In the Pacific Islands which are in the hands of other there is also noticeable a great falling-off in the imports of guano. For the whom year the imports amounted to £10,646,096, as against £8,739,633 for the year 1899. 'Napier is the only port in the colony which showed a deorease in the import returns for the year. Turning to the exports from the colony, we find that during the quarter ended December 31st they amounted in the aggregate to £2,343,922, inclusive of £7400 worth of specie, as against an aggregate value of £2,762,537. This amounts to a deciease as between the last quarter of 1900 and of 1899 of £418,615 for the whole colony. This unusual falling-off is accounted for chiefly by defic ; encies at twelve different ports and in the value of parcels posted. The principal of these deficiencies are: —Wanganui, £21,400; Wellington, £79,400 ; Napier, £IBO,IOO ; Wairau and Picton,£l3,ooo; Nelson, £6000; Greymouth, £52,000; Hokitika, £5000; Lyttelton, £175 600; and Timaru, £78,800. „ Auckland shows an export business increased by £33,500 for the quarter *. Poverty Bay, an increase of £67,500;

Oarnaru, £85,890; and Dunedin £26,000. The United Kingdom alone took £401,000 worth less of New Zealand goods than in the last quarter of 1899. Cape Colony also figures in the .same light by taking £1215 worth of goods as against £45,869 in the last quarter of 1899 ; and quite a number of other customers have taken reduced quantities of our exports. The following were the principal articles of export: —Aline products, £374,539 (gold £338,957); fisheries, £4488; forest products, £223,752 (kauri gum £146,658}-, animal produce, £1,274,810 ; agricultural produce, £331,776; manufactures, £86,070. AIEAT AND DAIRY PRODUCE. The monthly leaflet issued by the Agricultural Department discloses the fact that, as regards both quantity and value, the exports of dairy produce and meat for the month of January were considerably below those in January, 1900. The exports for last month, as set forth in the circular, were as follows:—Butter, 26,939ewt., valued at £116,903; cheese, il,B7Bcwt., valued' at £28,727; frozen beef, 18,440 cwt., valued at £20,594; mutton, 69,651 cwt., valued at £74,692; lamb, 15,689 cwt., valued at £22,112. For January, 1900, the exports of the same products were as follows-.—Butter, £142,981; cheese, £33,749; beef, £32,161; mutton, £91,238; lamb, £58,209. The totals for the two months are: —January, 1900, £358,338; January, 1901, £263,028; - decrease for January, 1901, £95,310. ' The aggregate values of these exports for the ten months ended January 31st are : Butter, £522,021; cheese, * £153,594 ; frozen beef, £257,179; mutton, £809,043; lamb, £443.760. '