OUR EXPORTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1957, 23 May 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR EXPORTS.

We deferred commenting on theexport tables for 1888, published on the 7th inst., until we could obtain the particulars of the exports for the March quarter, which we now print in another column. The comparison of one year i with another is always subject to variations in the seasons, causing in ! some years delays in shipment,' which j run the produce of one year over into the next. This is notably the case with wool, and it will be seen that the apparent deficiency on the year is made up by larger shipments in the March quarter. Taking the whole period of 15 months the net increase in exports is no less than LI, 188,421, and it is spread over a considerable area, agricultural produce being of course the largest item, owing mainly to the exceptional demands from Australia. The excess under this bead for the 15 months is just L 500,000. Frozen meat comes next with L 211,000, and the remaining increases are spread over gold, kauri gum, timber,' butter and cheese, phormium, and a number of miscellaneous items not enumerated. These solid facts ought to do much to restore our credit at Home, witnessing as they do to the wonderful .recuperative powers of the colony in spite' 1 of the discouragements of a considerable period of depression. We cannot !u-

deed hope that the Australian markets will keep open to us for any long j period, and the prospects of a continued large demand for flax, in the > production of which there is at present great' activity,' are not as well assured as we should like them to be, since prices have been forced up by a " corner " in rope and twine-making materials in America, and these, "cor- " ners " are .apt to collapse suddenly. v Nor can we expect to largely increase our production of wool while our flocks are kept down by such large exports' of frozen carcases ; but an increase of [ several hundred thousand pounds in value may fairly be looked for in the j present favourable condition of the Home market. There is room, on the, j other hand, for a' large . increase in'j our output of gold, timber, butter ! and cheese, and also of coal and.; minerals. It seems quite clear that we j have, turned, the corner of long-con- ,j tinued dullness in trade, and it* can- j not be long before increased produc-jj tion in so many directions tells upon, the condition of trade generally. There j are many signs of increased settlement, ' and of imprbved demand for land and ' a larger demand for goods, and better prices will surely follow ,ere long. To sum up • the brighter elements in,| our position, we have to record within 1 ! the past 1,2 months the placing of our j chief financial institution in, a sound f position ; the reduction of expenditure, ,! and bringing our colonial revenue into a position to meet our liabilities with a small surplus over - } the placing of some hundreds of new settlers on the ' land ; the reduction of pastoral rents to j figures which leave a better margin to ] the sheepfarmer ; and a very notable increase in our exports of colonial produce, and far better prices. We do not look for or desire a "tqom," but, we may fairly expect steady improvement in all branches of trade, and j nothing would more contribute to this i I than a revival in our goldfields, of , which there are many hopeful signs. \