WEATHERING THE STORM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2380, 9 February 1915, Page 5

WEATHERING THE STORM

"OUR PROSPERITY ~ SIMPLY WONDERFUL." (By Telcgranh—Press Aesocf&tlon.) Auckland, February 8. "Considering that the Empire is at war," said the Prime Minister in an interview, "tli© present prosperity of the Dominion is simply wonderful. Owing to tho increase in the prices of our principal exports, which, of course, it has been impossible to avoid, tie country-has hardly felt the pinch so far. The year 1914 furnished a record to the Dominion in respect to the value of our exports, the total being over £26,000,000, and there is every probability that this total will bo exceeded during the current year." In regard to the drought, Mr. Massey said that the districts that had suffered south of Auckland were the Poverty Bay, Hawke's Bay, and Wairarapa districts in the North Island, and Canterbury, Nelson, and Marlborough in the South Island. The fruit crop in Nelson, however, was a satisfactory . one. Taranaki, Otago, and Southland, and the West Coast of the South Island had not been affected. Generally speaking, the rainfall had been greater on the West Coast of both islands than on the East Coast. "As far as this month at least is concerned there will be no shortage of ships to convey our produce to the Old Country," added Mr. Massey. "Up to the present the position has been met very well, and the position in regard to frozen meat has been relieved to some extent by t the recent rainfalls, which, of course, will render it unnecessary to hasten killing operations to such an extent as would have been unavoidable had tho dry weather been further prolonged. -Unfortunately, however, the recent rain has not been sufficiently general to give relief in all the meatproducing districts."