Recovery and Progress.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 131

Recovery and Progress.

The Hon. W. P. Reeves has contributed an article to the February number ot the Financial Review of Reviews on the " Recovery and Progress of New Zealand." In the mass of interesting and informative matter written, the following comments are prominent — " The colony of New Zealand, which between 1879 and 189 s underwent sixteen years of more or less severe depression, has now enjoyed ten years of remarkable prosperity. It is not the least exaggeration to say that the present position and immediate prosperity are probably brighter than at any other moment of its chequered history." He goes on to say that the colony's existing prosperity has a solid foundation of production and well-being, and furnishes a telling comparison between New Zealand at the end of 1890, and New Zealand in 1904- 1905. He is of opinion that the official figures of the colony's external trade for 1904 are " not only striking for a countrywith a population like New Zealand, but they are all the more creditable because, owing to New Zealand's isolated position, the figures are not swelled by any transit trade." The High Commissioner has certainly a substantial ground upon which to build his article. Taking our exports alone, we find that they increased by over 80 per cent m ten years, while the total number of male hands employed in factories distended to nearly100 per cent, over that of 1896, and a similar advance is to be noted m the colony's machinery and plant for the same period.