15

E.—4.

1879 (to New Zealand) ... ... ... ... ... £1,213,840 1880 „ ... ... ... ... ... 935,130 1881 „ ... ... ... ... ... 1,220,790 For the three years ... ... ... ... ... £3,399,760 —or an average of about £1,130,000 a year. Comparing this with the value of drapery goods shipped in the same years to New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia for the same three years, these are the figures : — 1879 (to Australia) ... ... ... ... ... £4,785,660 1880 „ ... ... ... ... ... 5,497,430 1881 „ ... ... ... ... ... 6,641,880 For the three years ... ... ... ... ... £16,924,970 —or an average of about £5,600,000 a year, the increase being at the rate of about a million sterling each year. Of this total of nearly £17,000,000 for 1881, South Australia took £2,500,000, New South "Wales £6,800,000, and Victoria £7,500,000; and thus it appears that the amount of drapery goods shipped to these three Australian Colonies was close upon five times the amount shipped to the chief ports in New Zealand direct. Now, if the populations of the respective colonies are compared, it is obvious (and much more so here than in the case of either passenger traffic or other cargo) that the people in Australia are not likely to want drapery goods to so great an excess over the quantity wanted by ourselves. There is, of course, no means of stating with anything like real accuracy the proportion which fine goods usually bear to other cargo, or the average value of fine goods to the ton measurement; but is is commonly estimated by snippers that fine goods occupy about one-tenth of the space taken by other cargo (measurement), and that their value is about £LOO to the ton : and this is the proportion given to me lately by some large packers I have consulted. If, then, the £3,400,000 worth of drapery goods sent to New Zealand in the three years 1879-8 L are taken at this scale, they would have required about 12,000 tons of measurement space each year to bring them out: they actually took rather more, or close on 13,000 tons, last year. Now, if you turn to the estimate which I made above of the tonnage that might be expected to pay fine-goods freight, you will find that I have put it at not more than 1,000 tons per steamer, or 13,000 tons in the year, which is just what went by sail in 1881. Considering that, hi addition to the fine goods which came by sailing ship direct, a large quantity certainly came round by both P. and O. and Orient ships, I ought to be well under the mark, because, whatever may be the goods that would not come in a direct steamer, fine goods at any rate would certainly come. And it should be remembered that, whereas at the present time a large amount of the fine-goods trade to New Zealand is done from as well as through Australia, the tendency of a steam service would naturally be to lessen Australian shipments to New Zealand, in favour of shipments from the United Kingdom direct. Again, out of the total register tonnage of 374,000 tons cleared from the United Kingdom to the chief ports in New Zealand (Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago), in the three years 1879-81, only 5,600 were steam, or not 2 per cent, of steamers to sailing ships; whereas the percentage of steam to Australia has been increasing rapidly in the same three years, as the following figures will show :— The total tonnage to New South Wales in the three years was ... 508,033 tons ~ „ Victoria „ „ ... 522,692 „ „ „ South Australia „ „ ... 234,237 ~ For the three colonies ... ... ... ... 1,264,962 tons Of this total, 967,000 tons were sent by sailing vessels, and 298,000 tons by steam; but the annual increase in the percentage of steam to the whole tonnage was as follows: — v Total Register Tonnage to the Of which there were , ,Q, Percentage xeal- three Australian Colonies. Sailing Ships. And bteam. of Steam. 1879 362,775 tons 296,112 tons 66,(563 tons 18/38 1880 399,849 „ 304,566 „ 95,283 „ 2383 1881 502,338 „ 366,489 „ 135,849 „ 2704 Thus, while the sailing-ship tonnage increased by 70,000 tons, the steam tonnage also increased by 69,000 tons, and more than doubled itself in the three years; and there is every reason to think that a similar development will take place again next year. In Queensland, the steam service lately established has had a striking result; only about 28,000 tons register were cleared to Queensland in 1879, without any steam ; in 1881, with a total tonnage of about 54,000 tons, upwards of 21,000 were steam ; and there is no question that the demand for steam tonnage to that colony is increasing fast. So much on the subject of outward cargo. Now, with regard to homeward freight, it is just as manifest as it was in the outward, that a monthly steamer could only take a small proportion of the present trade, allowing nothing whatever for increase. The wool sent home by sailing ship last year was over 180,000 bales, and grain, 105,000 tons. It is therefore hard to see why, with freight no higher than sailing rates, direct steamers should not fill up homeward, unless questions relating to ports of call should prevent it. In the calculations given above I have only spoken of wool and grain ; but lam not forgetting the probable shipments of refrigerated meats and dairy produce. We know pretty well what the market in England is for New Zealand wools; and with regard to food-supply we also know that the annual deficit of the United Kingdom is 280,000,000 bushels of grain. But the demand for dairy produce is practically unlimited. Though the import of butter into the United Kingdom has doubled in the last ten years, being now 2,500,000 cwt., worth over £12,000,000 wholesale, the consumer has to pay more for it now than he had then; and, although the import of cheese has nearly trebled in the same time, being now 1,750,000 cwt., worth £5,000,000 wholesale, the rise in price to the consumer has been even greater than in butter. Already the import of Australian