The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1908. STATISTICAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3783, 28 January 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1908. STATISTICAL.

The latest statistics compiled by the Registrar-General concerning the trade and population of the Dominion, shows that the total value of the exports and imports for the year 1907 was £37,051,646 as against £33,306,540 tor the previous year, a very substantial increase of nearly four millions for the 12 months. The progress is the more noticeable when the figures for a.. xo-year period are examined. iW instance, in 1896 the value of the total trade of New Zealand was but £13,431,804, and during the decade it has considerably more than doubled. Fast year’s imports increased by 11 per cent., and the exports by 10 per cent, over the previous year, the imports totalling £16,982,046, and the exports £20,069,600. The principal item of the export trade is wool which last year was valued at £6,376,021, a slight decrease as compared with the previous year, though fully a million in excess iu value over the 1905 returns, which up to that time had constituted a record. The wool on the average returned ii'oxd per lb as compared with 10’5id in 1906, an increase of i'4od. Frozen meat, the next largest export line, was sent from the Dominion to the value of £3,438,538, an increase both in quantity and in value, last year’s business, which was tlxen a record, totalling £2,877,031. The price gained for frozen meat increased by 7d per cwt. Gold, which comes third on the list of, exports in the matter of value, totalled £2,027, 490, being nearly threequarters of a million less than was exported in 1906. 1 The record for gold export was reached in 1903, when the figures totalled £3,197,043. 10 years—from

1896101906 —the value of butter aucl cheese expelled rose from ,£411,882 to £1,901,237, and this total was exceeded last year, when the value reached £2,276,982, thus for the first time exceeding the gold export during the same period. Butter prices increased by 1 id per cwt. and cheese was better by 4s id per cwt. Hemp has increased sh&hvly in quantity and considerably in value, the figures for 1906 ana 1907 being respectively £776,106 and £821,898, the price of hemp having increased by £1 4s iod per ton. Kauri gum exported was less last year by 445 tons than was sent away in 1906, the value was £57,401 in excess of the amount realised 12 months ago, this being due to a rise of £9 10s 2d per ton in the price of the product. In 1890 no less than 4,467,026 bushels of wheat were exported, but since then there has been a gradual decrease in the area under crop, only 61,199 bushels being sent away in 1906. 'The European population on December 31st last was 929,000, an increase of 20,295 for the year, as against 28,761, for 1906. The Maoris are estimated at 47,731, aud the Cook and other Pacific Islanders 12,340, making in all a total population of 989,071. In 1906 the total gain by excess of births over deaths was 15,913, aud last year’s figures (14,565) show a considerable fall for the 12 months, as also a fall as compared with the average for the five years preceding 1906.