EXPORT TRADE WITH INDIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7720, 15 November 1886, Page 4

EXPORT TRADE WITH INDIA.

TO THE EDITOR. g II!) —Following up the inquiry of Sir Julius Vogel in reference to trade with India, the Hon. Colonial Secretary on the 18th April 1885 wrote to the Secretary to the Government of India at Calcutta, and to the Secretary to the Government, Bombay, to the effect that tbo Government of New Zealand would esteem it a great favour if these gentlemen could procure any iuformation as to the market for dairy produce, moro especially cheese and butter, in Bengal and Bombay. " Many dairies," wrote Mr Buckley," havo recently been started in New Zealand on tho American factory principle, and tbo Government is anxious to obtain trustworthy intelligence as to tho best outlets for their produce. The average prices that butter and cheose fetch iv Calcutta and Bombay and other large and easily accessible tewns in tho presidencies, as well as an estimate of the quantities that could be disposed of at those prices, would be particularly valuable." The Secretary to the Government of India, writing from Simla, July 9, 1885, replied that " the demand in India for foreign cheese and butter is very small, aud the import of either article takes place solely to supply iho wants of lhe European population."

Ho also furnished a return of tho quantities of cheese and butter imported into India during five yeare 1877-8 to 1881-2, which shows the average annual quantity imported to have been: cheese, 470,2601b; and butter, 137,6251b. The Secretary further stated "that the smailncss of the European population renders it obvious that the Indian market affords no satisfactory opening for colonial dairy produce, unless the latter can be provided in a form acceptable to the natives of the country. Tho ouly form in which dairy produce is consumed to any extent by natives is that of 'ghi' or clarified butter, which is used in large quantities by all who can afford to do so. The possibility of supplying the demand for ghi to some extent from Australia has more than once been under consideration." He continued: "An experiment in this direction has recently been mado by the Government of South Australia with tho co-operation of the Government of India. Financially the experiment was, owing probably to the small scale on which it was conducted, not successful; but its results suificed to show very clearly the possibility of producing ghi in South Australia of a kind likely to find favour with tho natives of this country. Thero is, so far as the Government of India is aware, no reason to doubt that similar experiments in New Zealand or any other Australian colony, if undertaken earnestly, and on a sufficiently large scale, would result in a trade which would eventually benefit both the exporting colony and India in a very material degree." It appears to me somewhat singular that the Government of India had not furnished more complete and recent information in reply to the queries of the Colonial Secretary. He asked for prices. None have beeu supplied. He asked for " an estimate of the quantities that could be disposed of at those prices," instead of which a return is given of the quantities of butter and cheese imported into India during each of five years, the last of which camo to a close three years before the date of the Indian Secretary's reply. This would scarcely be considered "up to time" in New Zealand. It would therefore appear that unless ghi can be produced profitably—which is doubtful—thero is not a market in ludia for New Zealand dairy produce. So far as butter is concerned it seems scarcely worth an effort to obtain possession of the market even if the price were fair. The average annual import of that article into all India is less than one-seventeenth part of the quantity which New Zealand exported to New South Wales alone in 1885. Whether the export of our farm and dairy produce to New South Wales will increase or decrease, or be continued with the same advantage to New Zealand or to the same extent as at present, notwithstanding the recent change in the Customs tariff of the former colony, remains to be seen. No less thau j 2,433,9701b of butter, of the value of £88,812, and 084,3761b of cheese, of the value of £13,972, the produce of the colony of New Zealand, were during 1885 imported. by New South Wales. Had the present tariff been in existence last year the amount of duty which the New South Wales Government would have received in respect of these imports—butter and cheese—from New Zealand would have been £15,840; and this would have been paid by somebody, whose identity it will possibly be difficult to establish to the satisfaction of everybody. This is a fact ' from which a lesson may be learned. The correspondence between the Indian and New Zealand Governments, which has, I understand, been freely circulated amongst our manufacturers and others interested, does not appear to have led to any practical result. No experimental shipment, as suggested by Sir James Fergusson, has been made. The exports to India during ISSS amounted to only £736. Horses and cattle shipped at Dunedin represent £576 of this amount, aud butter, cheese, preserved fish, and preserved meat from Auckland make np the balance (£160). In the first quarter of tha current year exports were nil ; in the second quarter their value was £88. In the quarter ended September 30 last passed, an item of £5917 appears as the . value of exports to Bengal. Upon inquiry I find that the shipment which this item represents was made afc Lyttelton in the s.s. Triumph, It consisted of 218 horses (value, £4870), and coals and stores for ship's use and provender for the animals (value, £1047). This can scarcely be considered an " experimental shipment," horses having been sent from Dunedin to Calcutta in 1884 and

The information which has been received from the Government of India can be supplemented by many gentlemen who after a long residenco in that country have settled in New Zealand, ani who in the positions they occupied in India have had ample opportunities of acquiring extensive knowledge of the requirements of the presidencies; and surely through the channels or agencies by which our interchange is conducted with China, Hongkong, Japan, Philippine Islands, Java, and Singapore—our trade with which countries in 1885 amounted in the aggregate to £218,728 —reliable information can be obtained as to the probability of opening markets for any manufactures or products which have not yetformed any partof our exportsto those places. The same may be said in regard to the islands of the Pacific. Our trade with these; extending over six islands and 13 groups of islands, amounted in 1885 to £191,356—imports £86,876 and exports £104,480. In 18S4 tho amount of trade was £190,251. The fact of steam communication with some of the islands having been subsidised by votes of the Parliament ia in itself sufficient evidence that the importance of the trado to New Zealand has not been lost sight of by the Government. It may be interesting to note here, as evidence of the unselfish nature, of the laudable anxiety of the people of New Zealand as to the future of the New Hebrides, that from the Ist of January 1883 to the present time our trade with these islands has amounted to only £43—viz., imports £23 and exports £20 in 1884. Apologising for thus trespassing on your space,—l am, &c, A. H.Ross. November 13.