DOMINION PRODUCTS

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 663, 17 January 1933, Page 5

DOMINION PRODUCTS

Consumption on Local Markets. A STUDY IN PROPORTIONS. (Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, January 17. With schemes in. the air for levies on some classes of our production, with the object of securing higher local prices which will serve as an export bonus, an examination of the proportion of our production which finds its way into the local market becomes unusually important. This survey is made in the New Zealand Year Book which has just been published, and the figures vividly demonstrate the comparative unimportance of local sales, though some of the local-consumption figures, when separated from those of export, look impressive. For instance, New Zealanders consume nearly 401 b of butter per head each y-ear, though cheese, not being regarded as an article of staple diet, as it is in some covintries, only finds a local consumption of 7.431 b per head. Beef finds its best support locally, with a consumption per head of 146.281 b, and more than half the pork raised is consumed within the Dominion. The fruit diet of New Zealanders is strangely small in respect to its own production, being 27.601 b per head with apples, 6.681 b per head of pears, though the consumption of imported fruits includes bananas 13.851 b per head, and oranges 10.971 b per head. The gross production of the Dominion has been calculated, and the percentages ascertained of local consumption, and of export ; with the following results: Used

Wool, so important an item of production, does not* come into this table, but similar facts relating to it are available in another part of the volume. Wool production in 1932 was estimated to have exceeded 282 million lb, and with the exception of between six and seven million lb, the whole of it was exported.

Butter locally. Exported. 76.7 Cheese ,. 5.4 94.6 Beef . S3.8 16.2 Mutton 52.6 Lamb 3.4 96.6 Pork 45.7 Bacon and ham . . 98.2 1.8