Trade of New Zealand.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3506, 6 April 1905, Page 3

Trade of New Zealand.

The council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, in a brief review of the trade of the colony, speaks of 1904-5 as “ another year of prosperity and successful trading for New Zealand.” Although the volume of our exports falls shorty of that ot the preceding twelve months (the record of the export trade), yet, says the council in its annual report, it is substantially in excess of that of any previous year in the history of the colony. The following are the values of exports for the year ending with September 30th : Goods 1903-4 Wool A-33M71 Sheepskins £405,862 Frozen Meat £21798 9^5 Butter and Cheese ... £1,555-373 Tallow £37°-5°3 Gold £2,052,059 Kauri Gum £542.321 Hemp £706,012 Timber £246,763 Grain, whole and ground £447.347 Other N.Z. produce ... £978,287 Total N.Z. produce ... £14,434-967 Reexports ... ... £138,821 Specie £7,848 Total £14,581,636 As compared with the preceding year, the total shows a falling-off of £381,891, but in comparison with the two earlier years, igor-2 and 1900-1, there is an increase of £1,278,754 and A - :,- 827,015 respectively. The main items of decrease are : Frozen meat, nearly £500,000 ; grain, whole and ground, £246,000 ; tallow, £148,000 ; and kauri gum, nearly £48.000. Increases are shown of about £242,000 in wool and sheepskins, £165,000 in butter and cheese, and £132,000 in hemp. In quantity the most important exports are as follows : 1903 4. Wool lb 141,031,699 Frozen Meat ... cwt. 1,959,764 Butter cwt. 306,755 Cheese cwt.. 86,700 Tallow tons 16,398 Kauri Gum ... tons 9,045 Hemp ... ... tons 26,452 Wheat bush. 772,873 Oats bush. 3,311,705 The increase in value of wool, which is equal to about 7!- per cent is attained in spite of a decrease equal to about 121 per cent in quality. Improved prices have also favoured frozen meat and hemp, while lowerprices have adversely affected the returns of butter, cheese, tallow, kauri gum, and grain. The average of the values put upon wool in the past four years respectively are as follows : —1903-4, 7.37 c! per lb ; j.gos-3, 6.oxd; rgoi-2, 4.84 c!; and igoo-i, 6-44 d The improvement since rgoi-a is 2.53 d, or over 50 per cent.