GRAIN STATISTICS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2044, 23 November 1869, Page 2

GRAIN STATISTICS.

( Oaniam Tiws ) The statistics of the export of grain, given in the recently published volume of statistics for 1868, deal with the year 1853 to 1868 inclusive, and supply a great deal of interesting information. The total number of bushels of grain of all descriptions exported in the firstmentioned year was, barley, 5420; oats, 30,858|; and wheat, 11,991. In the following year the quantity of barley was less by 75 per cent., oats showed an increase in round figures of 5,000 bushels, while wheat, stood at a figure nearly four times as large as during the previous year the export of this description of grain having in 1854 reached upwards of 42,000 bushels. In 1855 barley stood at nearly the same figures as those of the previous year, while oats had risen to bushels and wheat to 92,499. The total value of the whole export of grain and breadstuffs for this year was L 85,659, being

nearly double the amount of any one year from 1853 to 1868, with the exception of the last-mentioned year, when the high figures of L 123,356 were reached. In 1856 the export of barley is set down at nil, and that of oats had fallen to 12,695 bushels, and wheat to 53,455. In 1857 the figures were—Barley, 1687 bushels ; oats, 21,174 bushels; wheat, 50,413£ bushels. In 1858 the export of barley had increased nearly 50 per cent on that of the previous year, and oats had more than doubled, standing at 47,578 i bushels, while the export of wheat had fallen to less than half, being 21,426 bushels. In 1859 barley had nearly quadrupled, and oats nearly doubled, while wheat showed an increase over the year 1857 of 25 per cent; the total value of the export of cereals and breadstuff's for this year being L 42,076, as against L 23,186 in 1858. In 1860 the export had fallen to much smaller figures, the value of the whole being only one-fourth of that of the previous year; omitting odd figures the number of thousands of bushels of each descrip* tiou of grain being—barley, 6 ; oats, 36 ; wheat, 11, During the six years 1861 to 1866, inclusive, the export wad exceedingly small, the total number of bushels, including all three descriptions of grain being: 1861, 616 ; 1862, 6077 1863, 3,238; 1864, 3,580 ; 1865, 25,447 ; 1866, 32,610. In 1867 the export had again risen to figures little short of those of 1859, the return showing the export of 1867 to have been: barley, 9,258 bushels; oats, 17,639 bushels; and wheat, 131,915 bushels —by far the largest export of this grain in any one year. In 1868 the figures were still more exceptional, the barley export being set down at 51,368 bushels, more than five times the amount for 1867, which was itself the largest figure before reached ; while the export of oats were six times as great as in 1859 (which showed the largest previous figures), having reached the large total of 484,533 bushels. On the other hand, the export of wheat, which stood at 131,915 in 1867, had fallen in 1868 to 94,297. On the whole the export of 1868 was enormously larger than that of any previous year, the total value being set down, as before stated, at LI 23,356. The export* (in bushels) of Otago and Canterbury respectively, during the years 1861 to 1868 inclusive, are given below Otago. Bar l ey. Oatfl, Wheat, 1861 ... Nil. ... Nit ... 'M : 1862 ... Nil, ... NIL .i! Nil. 1883 ... 1,238 ... Nil. ... Nil, 1864 ... Nil. ... Nil. ... Nil. 1865 ... 454 ... 19,584 ... 2,819 1866 ... 392 ... 25,109 ... 4,769 1867 ... Nil. ... 6,324 ... 11.969 1868 ... 16,940 ... 100,106 ... 13,942 Cantxrbuky. 1861 ... Nil. ... 119 ... 497 1862 ... 30 ... Nil. ... 6.047 1563 ... 2,000 ... Nil. ... Nil 1864 ... Nil. ... 3,540 ... Nil. 1865 ... Nil. ... Nil. ... 654 1866 ... Nil. .. Nil. ... Nil 1867 ... 9,258 ... 10,674 ... 97,673 1868 ... 33,298 ... 364,975 ... 69,355