The Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1804. LIGHT TIMES AND POOR PROSPECTS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12120, 7 December 1894, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1804. LIGHT TIMES AND POOR PROSPECTS.

Whhs great banking corporations have to acknowledge the severity of the prevailing depression, and have in some casps to take steps to strengthen their financial position, and to cut down their dividends to less than one-half ; when a great , business association like the D J.C. of Otago, employing a capital of something like £100,000, passes its ' dividend altogether for the first time in nine years. When a firm like that of Nelson Bros, is obliged to seek a modification of tho terms of its contract with its farmer eonsti--1 tuents ; when the chairmen of tho 1 / Chambers of Commerce in such business centres as Wellington and Christchurcli publicly proclaim the fact that money is tight, prices ai'O low, business is bad, and prospects of rapid recovery are poor indeed, tho unpleasant truth may nob be welcomed by us, but it may as well be believed. Tho evidence before us go,os (o show that, though some p&tts of the .colony may bo suffering more severely than other parts, tho depression is not local, but general ; it goes further, and proves that i,t effects Dot one colony, but all, and. not merely the colonies but the civilised world generally. So far as New Zealand is concerned, the position is perfectly plain. Wheat is selling at a price that will not pay to grow it, and tho farmers of tho South and all the industries depend-

' ent upon tlio farmers arc suffering iv consequence. Where wheat has been the main product of a groat district for many years, aud the demand has been constant and (lie prices raoro or less profitable, tlio necessity that has now arisen for the wheat farmers largely turning tfieir attention to some other branches of industry is a matter of some seriousness, it may be that from henceforth New Zealand will bo shut out from tho wheat markets of the world, owing tr> the immense and constantly increasing productiveness of other countries. Yes, it is as well perhaps that our growers should realise at once that, local production must in future be limited to local consumption. The disappointment that meets us with regard to the wool market is severe and unexpected. Instead of the anticipated rise in prices, as a result of the Uuited States placing wool on the free list, we have to face' a fall which has been estimated as probably spelling a loss to our New Zealand sheepfarmers of something like £400,000 for this year's clip. If the present American policy iv regard to wool is not in the meantime reversed, and manufacturers have sufficient assurance given them to enable 'ihem to build upon the permanence of the admission of free wool, a steady and increasing demand for our brands may be expected to arise, aud with it a welcome increase in value?, in, the meantime, however, the outlook is anything but hopeful. With regard. to frozen meat, the immense competition which we must, cow be prepared . to face from tho.. other colonies must keep the prices down permanently, ; - .The prospects, too, of tho live cattle project, should the experiments that are being carried but result in 'the' end satisfactorily, will not operate helpfully to the sheep freezing industry. Tho meat consumers of the Old Country are said to prefer good beef to good mutton, even though they should have to pay a somewhat higher 1 price for the former. Fortunately there is this consolation to be looked forward to, should the live cattle project prove successful from Australian ports, that we are not that far removed but that equal success may attend our own efforts in a similar direction. Tn this direction, however, the sheep and cattle farmers of Australia and New Zealand are threatened with increased competition from America. From the Hawke's Bay Herald we gather that Mr Bruce, Chief Inspector of Stock for New South Wales, recently paid an official visit to the United States, his chief mission being to report on the methods of canning and preserving meat there, and the live stock trade with England. Towards the close of his report he thus speaks of the intimate connection between the American beef and Australian murton: —

11 1 have gone at consido-abln length into the particulais of the American beef trade with the United Kingdom.iuto both the live stock and chilled meat trade, becauve, although the importations from New South Wales at least will consjst principally of ghpnp, tha American cattle trade, more especially in (he shape of chilled boafjiaa a -very important bearing on the price of our frczan mutton in England. For those who purchase frozen mutton also at times buy chillftd.btef, and as the majority of them prefer beef to mutton, the resu'.t is that when th? price of chilled beef is so low as to be only a little higher than frozen mutton, the beef is purchased in preference to the mutton. TheD, again, the American shipper are so very much nearer to England than those in Australia, and are so very well and promptly advised by their agents as to the stftfca of the meat market and its prospects, and kave always such ample supplies of beef at their command, that they can take advantago of the slightest rise in the market and send over at once full supplies of beef. And, notwithstanding that it frequently sells at prices which, taking thoce qnoted in the Chicago market and those realised in England, must, after paying freights and charges, be anything but remunerative t3 the shippers, heavy shipments continue to arrive every week, and of course have a d ipressina offocfc on the Australian and Now Zealand frr.ssan rceat trade, The effect of the Amseioin supply on tho British meat market; will, however, be bettor grasped by our owners when theenormou3 quantities which were scat over during last year, in the shape of cattle and chilled beef to G.eat Britain, is put into the equivalent of merino shoop weighing, cay, 501 b each, thus ;— ■- . Sheep. 248 82-5 live cattle, each 9301 b dressed woighr.is 223,942.500 lb, or, say 4,478,850 14,58i),049Jwt fresh beef.wbich is, say 3,337.435 Equivalent 7,816,335 That is to say, the quantity of beef sent in 1893 by the United States to Great Britain is considerably more than twice as much as the mutton shipped theio by the Australian Colonies, while the Amurican supply for that year was less than that for ea,ch of the previous thtes years." Mr Bruce neg:fc.es:anjines the question as to whether tho present extensive shipments of beef from flip United States will continue, " I have heard the icmark repeatedly made," he snye, "that it is only aqun;tion of a comparatively bhort titno wliqn tho United States, with the rapid indicate of popu'ation from natural growth and immigration, will require all tho moat the can produce, or, at loasr, that with thejjfl additions to her popu'ation, meat will psp to a figure which must make tho price 100 tiigk to export, and, of course, that Australian ijoet and mutton would then bring better priefis, As will be seen from the figures I have alroady quoted, there was a, considerable fallinp-off last year in both tbu live cattlri shipments and those of chilled meatj but, as I have sh6wn, this decrease was only a temporary one, for the shipments of both live cattle and fresh moat luvo been hoavy since the beginning of the present year, notwithstanding that the prices reco'.ved in England for both tho live cattle and meat wera apparently unreuiunerative. But even if the supply of moat were to run bo snort in the United States as to diminish the quantity exported from that country, it would not fall solely to Australia to make up the deficiency, for not only is Canada steadily increasing the production of meat and shipping regularly to Great Britain, but the supply of beef and mutaon from South Airerica is bo.nud both to inprove in<iuality atfi increase in quantity, as there niu iarga feasts of county in Argentina and also in" Uruguay s»d Paraguay, : woll adapted for cattle still unsiopked: and tho improvement of the quality of both cattlo ond sheep is now making rnpid progress in all parts of thft world, and especially in Argentina. But, apart altogether from the supplies which way ocnw from the countries to which I have hero alluded, in order more thoroughly to put our owners on their guard against relying on any considerable decrease in the shipmnnts of live «»Ulo and fresh moat to British and Continental markets. I fear that a shortage, such as that which some of our owners nra expecting to take place in tho United States', will not occur for— what with tho additions winch are certain to be made there ta the present area of land under tillage, with the insnrovements by fencing and water conserving which will bo effected on lln native pastures, wi'h tho adoption of a hotter system of crop-growing, tho laying down »jb>'e tend in cultivated grasses, the piowiDfl of' roots, gr^a props, and in j the breeding, management, ana'fatt&n>»g of Btcflk-ifc may, I think 1 , bo fairly as- 1 sumad that OP production of beef and mutton In tho United States will, for a considers bio tiiuo fit least, keep pa.cc with t lm growth of thu population, oapacmlly

if it Bhonld bnppan, as there seems to be considerable probability of its doing, that i the emigration to Anieica will not in tha coming decade be so extensive as in the t ast." From the above it would appear that the prospects of our main colonial products aio not too hopeful, and that if, as a people, wo are to make both ends meet in the future, carefulness and economy will have' to bo the rule in both public and private life. The brightest bit of sunshine in the commercial horisson is contained in a recent speech by Mr Leonard Courtney, M.P., one of tho leading English authorities on finance, where he says :— " The circumstances which had been moving in the direction of making gold difficult to. get, very scarce, and therefore more precious, were now rapidly moving in tho other direction ; it was getting to be more easily found and moie abundant, and they j might look forward with a more serious and well-based hope to a recovery of prices, such as followed the discovery of the Australian and California!! gold mines. The produce in Soutii Africa had enormously increased, and that from Western Australia was most promising. If this promise were kept up, they would find a recovery of prices, j which would not be hurtful to the mass of the people, for they did not mean that wheat and beef would be more diffioult to get, but that gold would be easier to get, and so it would tend to the relief of all instead of the depression of all. Markets would rise, manufacturers would be encouraged, and farmers might look for the means of bettering thoir condition. He thought there was serious ground for. belief that to those mines of South Africa and Western Australia of which he had spoken they might look for a recovery of commerce and agriculture such as they knew a generation ago, though perhaps not to the same extent.