ARGENTINE EXPORTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12649, 29 April 1903, Page 5

ARGENTINE EXPORTS.

'; SOME STARTLING FIGURES.- *, m In the course of a conversation last even- .. in<j Sir Joseph Ward mentioned to a repr'e-. 0 ' scntalive of this journal that he had been s supplied by Mr T. K. Donne with an in--1 teresting return of tho exports from New '. | Zealand's great'rival, the Argentine, for ', | tho year 1902, Sir Joseph, in consenting 3 : to the publication of the return, said the i! figures would ho doubt come as a surprise )i to commercial men generally. Following t is the roturn:— April 6, 1903. : Tho Hon. the Minister for Industries and ? Commere?. 1 During the year 1902 the Argentine ) shipped to South Africa 393,266 frozen I sheep, 210,203 quarters of beef, 6600 tons ) of wheat, 74,126 tons of maize, 23,292 tons I of bran, 1,242,503 ba'.cs of hay, 870 tons of fc sugar, and 23,036 boxes of butter. These i ar» formidable figures, and interest this 5 colony very much. !: During the same period the following wero i ' some of the Argentine's principal exports ■ to the (Jnitcd Kingdom:—l4,3o6 dry hides, > 95,023 salted hides, 9940 bales of sheepskins, • 9603 pipes, 46,267 casks, and 11,429 hogs- > heads of tallow, 3,035,996 frozen sheep, i 620,010 quarters of beef, 31,120 bales of : wool, 76,435 tons of wheat, 327,257 tons of > maize, 71,349 tons of linseed, 16,440 tons, of • bran, 2835 tons of flour, 93,730 bags 'of ■ pollard, 133,234 boxes of butter, and 29,800 ■ tons of sugar. Some of tho principal exports to other ' countries during the same period were;— ' 1,181,397 dry ox hides to the United Siates, i 397,256 do to Italy, 756,366 salted ox hides to Germany, 61,774 bales of sheepskins to France (as against 9940 to the United Kingdom), 189,579 bales of wool to France, ; 112,253 do to Germany. 73,495 do to Belgium . (as against 31,120 do to the United Kingdom), 122,548 tons of wheat to Belgium, 123,317 tons of maize to Belgium, 10,988 pipes, 2897 casks, and 13,819 hogsheads of tallow to Italy. The most significant features of the Argentine exports are the increases from 1900 "io 1902 of frozen sheep—from 2,372,960 careases in 1900 to 3,429,222 in 1902; and 261,365 quarters of beef in 1900 to 830,213 in 1902: also 40,480 boxes of butter in 1900 to 162,509 in 1902. The only noticeable decrease is wheat— ■from 1,929,700 tons in 1900 to 650,098 in 1902,—which goes to prove that Argentine is withdrawing attention from agriculture and diverting its energies to the frozen meat and butter industries.