Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, FEB. 6, 1915. A RECORD OF PROGRESS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13602, 6 February 1915, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, FEB. 6, 1915. A RECORD OF PROGRESS.

The best record of the material progress of a district is probably that which gives the cash value of its exports. According to the measure of its production will be the measure of its development and of its prosperity. Judged by this standard we have very good reason to be satisfied with the progress which is being made by so-called Poverty' Bay. To the present writer it seems but a few years since the laborious compilation of returns of the output of the district resulted in a grand total of a quarter of a million pounds. In those days every cask of tallow and every bundle of pelts was carefully included in the returns, in order that the full value of the earning power of the district might be shown and that the world, might know how splendidly we

were progressing. And in those ouys— we speak of the period antecedent to 1898, when the quarter of a million mark was passed — we had good reason to glow with satisfaction at the growth of our exports, for had not the wool clip almost trebled itself in ten years and the output of meat increased from a f small beginning' in 1891-2 to a produc-,, tion of something like twelve million pounds in weight in 1898-9. But that was then only the beginning of things. A decade passed and the total 'exports of the district trebled themselves again. To be precise, the aggregate value of the produce shipped at Gisborne in 1898 was £316,000 in 1908 it had Tisen to £969,000. The following year the million mark was reached, and since then there has been a steady upward rise. The purpose of this article is to record the fact that to-day the million and a-half has been reached. The exports of Poverty Bay for the last four years have been as follow: —

1911 , £1,008,727 1912 £1,192,067 1913 £1,215,284 1914 ... ... £1,506;842 We consider that,, the attainment of this last-mentioned .figure calls for a note of congratulation. Last year's output puts Gisborne high up amongst the exporting centres of the Dominion, <the figures for the respective ports being: — Wellington £^,669,814 Auckland ... ... £4,059,450 Lyttelton .... ... £3,255,575 Napier ... £2,346,324 Dunedin £1,555,232 Poverty Bay £1,506,842 Timaru ..." £1,326,577 Bluff ... ... "... £1,322,049 Taranaki #727,275

It will be, seen that we have displaced Timaru, and are steadily overhauling Napier. Given better internal communications — and here is the main purpose of this article — there is no reason why the wonderful ratio of progress of past years should not continue/ and if it does Gisborne must become a much more important centre even than it is to-day.^ Meantime the fact that last year's production brought a return to the value of one and a-half million pounds for distribution throughout the district is comforting. A large proportion of that wealth is disbursed in the community in payment for works of development which our enterprising settlers find themselves able to carry on — all with the object of adding more greatly to the productivity of their properties and the district. .. This year's return with the war prices now prevailing should result' in an even more handsome total, and, as we have said, if only the Government could , be induced to push on with our railways and Toads, giving facilities for proper development^ the

progress would be by leaps and bounds. As for the future of Gisborne there is little call for pessimism when it has behind it the solid .backing of production valued at a million and a-half pounds every, year; and when we know that in many parts of the° extensive and fertile district surrounding 1 this town settlement has but barely commenced. Large areas have scarce been "broken in," and when they have been properly grassed and stocked their production must multiply exceedingly. Other large areas are capable of much closer settlement and more intense cultivation thap at present, and altogether throughout a wide range of magnificent country there is great scope for improvement in the earning* power of the district. But our settlers must have roads and railways. The figures we have quoted give sufficient justification for our claim on the Government that they should push on with the East Coast railways more vigorously than they are doiner. A district contributing one and a-half million pounds annually to the exports of the Dominion is entitled to something mo^fe than scant consideration, especially when, as has been shown in the past, every fresh section added to, the- railway assists wonderfully to increase the production of the -district served thereby, and gives the State a better rpturn for its ontlav than it receives from almost any other railway undertaking in New Zealand.