EXPORT SURPLUS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 45, 22 February 1936, Page 15

EXPORT SURPLUS

THE YEAR’S TRADING HIGHER BUTTER RETURNS Exports of merchandise from the Dot minion during the calendar year 1931 amounted to £46,538,678, and commodity imports to £36,287,514, so that external trading in commodities during the year resulted in an export surplus uff £10,251,134, as compared with £l6, 003,295 in 1934, and £15,424,533 iu 1933, reports the Government statistician. Thu most outstanding difference between. lhe return* for the two years is shown in the case of wool, the quantity exported being 12.7 per cent, below the 1934 total, while the declared value was down by as much as 43.3 per cent. The considerable fall in wool prices in the 1934-35 selling season, combined with a decrease in the clip in that production season arc responsible for mis result. The declared value of butter exports in 1935 was £3,573, 961 higher than in 1934, a striking indication of considerably increased prices realised, as compared with the extremely low levels of 1934. London monthly quotation* for New Zealand butter were, on the average, considerably higher during 1933 than has been for some years past. Cheese exports were slightly lower in 1935, both in quantity and in total declared value, than in 1934. The average declared vaiue per pound was, however, higher in .1935 (5.43 d compared with 5.07 d in 1934). The quantity of frozen lamb exported in 1933 shows an increase of u.B per cent, over the 1934 total, while the declared value increased by 3.6 per cent. Frozen mutton also shows increases in both quantity and value. Beef is slightly lower in quantity, but considerably higher in declared value than in t-he previous year. In thi* instance the declared value per hundredweight has increased from £1 Is Id to £1 4s, mainly owing to the fact that exports of this item during 1935 included a considerably greater proportion of chilled beef than was the case in 1934. A noteworthy increase i* observed in the export trade of frozen, pork, the quantity rising by 15.3 per cent, and the value by 14.9 per cent, Pork must now be ranked as one of our major exports. The export of apples in 1935 was only 65.4 per cent of the previous year’s total, the aggregate declared value falling by 34.9 per cent. Gold Shipments. The export of gold chows a further increase, this commodity having regained much of its old-time prestige us a major export. The value of £>,- 441,790 reached in 1935 is the highest total since 1913 (omitting the war years, when movements in gold were quite abnormal). The highest yearly total in the last 50 calendar year* was £2,270,904 (in 1906), while the lowest was £472,364 (in 1925) (excepting 1918, when only £42,391 worth was shipped owing to war conditions). The 1933 figure shows an increase of 205.2 per cent, value over the H>2s minimum. Much of this increase haw been due to the higher price of gold, the quantity exported being 171,2830 z, as compared with 114,6960 z in 1925, an increase of 49,3 per cent. Among other exports commodities of note, timber showed a welcome inciease in quantity and value in 1935; the export of grass seed was exceptionally high; and the value of export* of tallow was over 30 per cent higher than in rhe previous year. The value of commodity imports reached its low point (fofr recent calendar years) in 1932, 1933 showing a slight increase (of 3.80 per cent.» while in 1934 a sharp increase of 22.51 per cent, was reached. Tire 1935 total (£36,287,544) i* substantially ahead c-1 tho 1934 figure (£31.339,552, through still well below the avenge of tho decinnial period 1921-30 (£45,44'V* 020). The increase in importations of motor vehicles is particularly striking, 6430 more vehicles being imported than in 1934, while the declared value increased from £2,261,968 to £3,207,* 431. (Off this total £1,790,385, or 55.8 per cent., comprised motor vehicles . of United Kingdom origin).