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past year, although still considerably lower than in the years from 1924 to 1927. The figures are given below : — Year ended Mortgages 31st March, registered. 1924.. .. .. .. .. .. 37,862,419 1925.. .. .. .. .. .. 41,123,966 1926.. .. .. .. .. .. 47,093,780 1927 .. .. .. .. .. .. 39,979,681 1928.. .. .. .. .. .. 33,190,519 1929 .. .. .. .. .. .. 33,559,932 Although affording a valuable index of the movement over the period, the figures cannot be accepted as indicating the amount of indebtedness incurred by way of mortgage. Duplicate registrations are included, as are also collateral and guarantee mortgages not representing money indebtedness. In addition, there are numbers of privately arranged advances, bills of sale, liens, &c., which are not registered, and not included in the statistics. Land transfers, which fell heavily in 1926 and 1927, have also improved during the past year. Figures of railway traffic, too, reflect in some measure the increased activity in business conditions, for the number of passengers carried by railways and subsidiary services (excluding seasonticket holders) for the year ended 31st March, .1929, was 11,994,598, as compared with 10,159,192 for 1928 and 10,506,020 for 1927 ; while the total tonnage of all goods, &c., carried for the year ended 31st March, 1929, was 7,686,078, as compared with 7,380,698 and 7,320,307 respectively for the two preceding years. Island Trade. Fiji. New Zealand continues to do a substantial share of the total trade of Fiji, but by far the greater proportion is represented by imports (mainly raw sugar) from that country. The imports into New Zealand for the year ended 31st December, 1928, amounted to £571,728, and the exports to Fiji £138,706, the total trade being £710,434. The imports by Fiji from New Zealand during the past five years have fluctuated considerably, as is shown bv the following figures: 1924, £128,000; 1925, £117,000; 1926, £142,000; 1927, £124,775 ; 1928, £138,706. The exports to New Zealand have fallen off considerably, due chiefly to the fluctuations in the values and quantities of sugar shipped. In 1924 the exports amounted to £787,000 ; in 1925 to £1,024,000 ; in 1926 to £710,000 ; in 1927 to £410,039 ; in 1928 to £571,728. A study of the detailed imports of Fiji indicates a still further possible expansion of our export trade to that country in certain lines, such as confectionery, biscuits, bottled beer, cement, manures, soaps, timber, and brushware. Western Samoa. The following table gives in general terms the external trade for the past five years : —

It will be noted that the only adverse trade balance was in 1926. Goods worth £77,832 were sent to the United Kingdom in 1928. Germany (£26,061), United States of America (£43,571), Holland (£10,828), and New Zealand (£19,466) were the other chief buyers last year, and European ports (exact destination unknown) took goods worth £240,867 (mostly copra and cocoa-beans). New Zealand uses only a very small quantity of the classes of goods exported by Samoa, and the amount purchased in 1928 is made up chiefly of cocoa-beans (£8,000) and bananas (£11,219). The values of the imports into Western Samoa from the main countries concerned were during 1924r-28 as under :—

It will be seen that the United Kingdom is gaining and that Australia is losing trade.

[ Calendar Year. ' Imports. Exports. | Total Trade. £ £ £ 1924 .. .. .. .. .. 274,803 361,418 636,221 1925 .. .. .. .. .. 345,989 379,388 725,377 1926 .. .. .. .. .. 324,940 320,783 645,723 1927 .. .. .. .. .. 304,369 335,978 640,347 1928 .. .. .. .. .. 326,553 422,175 748,728

Calendar Year. Australia. New Zealand, j United Kingdom. | America^ £ £ £ i £ 1924 .. .. 99,000 87,000 25,000 42,000 1925 .. .. 104,000 91,000 64,000 55,000 1926 .. .. 80,000 92,000 50,000 66,000 1927 .. .. 69,000 89,000 63,000 51,000 1928 .. .. 68,000 96,000 71,000 50,000