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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19277, 15 September 1924, Page 6

The returns of imports and exports for the seven months ended July 31 last which have lately been issued, are necessarily of interest to the trading community. There is nothing very satisfactory in the circumstance that a decline is recorded in the export of the primary products of the dominion save, fortunately, in the case of wool, in respect of which a 40 per cent, increase over the corresponding figures for 1923 Las an influential bearing on the maintenance of the balance of trade. For the seven months the imports were valued at £26,802,003, "an increase of about nine per cert, on the total for the corresponding portion of last year, while the exports were valued at £36,363,073, an increase of nearlv eight per cent. The balance of trade represented in excess of exports over imports appears much mors impressive in the seven-monthly return than is likely at the completion of the twelve-monthly period for the simple reason that tbe oulk of the year’s exports are accounted burn the first half of the year, while the imports are fairly evenly distributed irom month to month. At the end of last year the balance of exports over imports represented a value of two and a-half millions, and there is nothing to indicate that that amount will be greatly exceeded at the end of the current year. While New Zealand is pre-eminently a country that ought to bo self-supporting in resfiect of the products of its primary industries, the return of imports for the first seven months of the year would be arresting if only for the conspicuous evidence it furnishes that the wheat crop is far from sufficient to meet the needs of the dominion. Actually the country’s bill *or imported wheat for seven months amounts to £643,789. From a comparatively negligible place upon the import list wheat has risen to an undesirable prominence. The importation of it during the period cost the dominion more than it paid out for such extensively used commodities as tea, sugar, tobacco, boots, woollen goods and paper. While the efforts of the Government to indnee the New Zealand farmer to grow more wheat have been successful, yet if wheat can no longer bo grown in New Zealand at prices that will admit of the production of a cheap loaf, the public will reconcile itself to the importation of the commodity.

two million pounds, in comparison with which the corresponding figures for last year leso their former impressiveness. vVith the landing of motor vehicles in the country at the present rate, at an expenditure which promises to come near the four million mark by the time the full year's importation is recorded, it is no marvel that the motor traffic problem is demanding closer attention. From the utilitarian point of view, it is more generally satisfactory to note that the item of importation that came second on the list is electrical machinery, which was imported during the seven months to the value of £1,329,286. This reflects an outlay of a profitable kind, and is encouraging as an index to the development of sources of power which must be reckoned as of the first importance in relation to the progress of the dominion. The increase in the imports of electrical machinery, motor vehicles, and wheat accounts for the advance of over *wo millions in the value of the country’s importations abroad during the first seven months of the year. Ko special interest attaches to the numerous other items on the list, so far as variation in the figures is concerned, unless it bo that some people will find a text for a homily in the circumstance that the country’s bill for the importation of cigarettes for seven months rose to £415,152 —an increase of £50,000 on the total for the corresponding months of last year.