[From the Otago Daily Times.] OUR EXPORTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2173, 17 October 1895, Page 1

[From the Otago Daily Times.] OUR EXPORTS.

T t is one of the misfortunes of modern •nevce > that a remote colony like Zealand should find its prosperity > ately affected by the rise and prices in the English market. '■ulonist may rise early and take -a rest late, may diligently sow, and plant, and reap, and spread himself over the fertile acres, but all his outlay of energy will meet with no due return if the prices at Smithfield or Mark Lane decline. And these prices again are affected by causes so difficult to disentangle that prediction becomes almost impossible, and human sagacity is perpetually foiled in its effort to foresee tho value of the product of labour luring a future twelve months. That the complexities of modern civilisation should so seriously affect the producer — ' that a revolt in Armenia may cause distress on the Tokomairiro Plain — ' appears to be unavoidable. The ; inlustrious settler has to compete with lie prairie and the savannah ; the output at Odessa, or the weather in the Argentine, has become an important , factor in determining whether Tom can proceed to the University or Maey have another term at the Girls' High School. The interest of the wageearner who makes his living by , fencing is seriously affected by the season on the Ked river, or the competition among the railway proprietors whose lines tap the Great North-West Territory. All the efforts of various statisticians in various parts of the world cannot do much more than tabulate the results of the past, though experts in certain branches of trade annually endeavour to anticipate by a few months the results of a season's crop or harvest. Mr Duxhib, M.fiL.R., recently moved for a return of the quantity and value for 20 years of the seven principal articles of export, being the produce of the colony, and also the prices at which the principal exports from the colony have been valued during the past 11 years. The result lies before us, and we note that the exporter's declaration of value after it has b&n examined into by the col- j lector of customs is referred back to him if the value stated is found to be ! too high or too low, and he is required then to furnish the correct value. How largely the question of prices at which ihe principal articles of export have been valued affects the usually accepted

statistical results will be seen from an inquiry into the specific articles exported. Everybody, of course, knows that wool is the principal article of export from the colony of New Zealand, but everybody does not know how enormously it exceeds all the others. During the 20 years under review New Zealand has exported no less than £70,237,55(3 worth of wool, while the other six principal articles of export — viz., gold, grain, flax, gum, butter and cheese, and meat, — taken altogether, show a value o£ some .£20,000,000 less. Notwithstanding the low prices of last year, it is satisfactory to find that the "wool returns for 1894 totalled no less a sum than or rather more than £1,000,000 sterling over the reJ turns for 1893. 13oth in weight and i value the export for 1894 largely exceeded the returns for any previous i year for the past 20. It would be | interesting to learn why the usual economic rule that a falling market limits the output of an article did not hold good last year in so far as New Zealand wool was concerned. The explanation will, we think, be found in the fact that small sheepowners have enormously increased during the past few years in the North Island, and we should much like to know what proportion of our wool export at present is furnished by owners of flocks of under 1000 sheep. In the South Island the price of wool is generally considered to be a question more largely concerning flockowners who count their muster by tens of thousands But in the North Island there is an ever-growing number of men holding from 300 to 500 acres, whose only stock on the farm is about three and a-half sheep to the acre. The small sheepfarmer of the North Island deals entirely with Leicester, llomney, and especially Lincoln sheep, and it is possible to travel over an enormous tract of sheep country without ever seeing or hearing of a merino. The oscillation in the grain export, and especially in the value of the grain exported, is the most striking feature of the list before us. In 1878 there were exported just over 2,000,000 bushels of grain of a total value of £508,767; while in 1894 over 2,250,000 bushels of grain were exported, oE a total value of £213,405. It will bo seen that the value per bushel of grain in 1878 was within a very small fraction of 5s a bushel, while in 1894 it is valued all round at Is 94d j>er bushel. The fierce contrast between the two periods will be startling to most of our readers. It is, of course, well understood that the past 17 years has been a period of decadence in the market for breadstuff's, yet we are inclined to think that the value of 5s a bushel all round in 1878 was excessive. If correct, the figures afford some justification for the sanguine banking which characterised the later seventies. If grain all round were now to fetch 5s a bushel, added to the increased price of wool, there would, we fancy, be very little deficit on the real estate of the Assets Company. The item of flax export is perhaps the most melancholy upon the list. The highest point in this industry was reached in 1890, when 21,158 tons were exported, of the value of £381,789, while a note on the year 1894 states s "As the valuo of flax exported during 1894 was only £66,256, it is no longer one of the principal articles of export." It seems that tallow has taken the place of flax as one of the principal articles, the output having reached nearly 10,000 tons, of the value of £204,499. Frozen meat reached its highest point during last year, when tho output exceeded that

of 1891 in weight and nearly equalled it in value. Butter and cheese have for 20 years made steady progression, continued up to laat year, when an amount of the value of £366,483 was exported. As we have said above, the internal prosperity of the colony is to a large extent dependent on these export prices which we have dealt with. The benefit of high prices in the English markets may be well gauged by the fact that, should the present rise in the value of wool be sustained over next year's sales, the colony will obtain a million of money from this one article in excess of the amount received last year.