Facts for Consideration.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 75, 2 March 1885, Page 4

Facts for Consideration.

Mr Cargill, m his presidential; address ; t6 the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce* m advocating intercolonial reciprocity, adduced the following facts : — " New Zealand last year produce.d 9;Q00$000 Jbushels of oats, and Victoria only 4,000,000, while Victoria -had J a, population of 931, 790, or nearly double our population. iThen the number of horses m Victoria was 286,779, as against 161,730 m New Zealand.. The product m New Zealand of oats was 32.1 bushels per acre. It must ■be perfectly plain, therefore, that Victoria could never possibly com- ! pete with New Zealand m the growth of oats— that we should always be able to -undersell them ; and he considered that the only difference there should be ;in the price of oats between the two colonies 'should , be the freight from New Zealand to Victoria. He was not well posted iup regarding prices, but he knew that the price of oats m Victoria was at one time 3s 6d per bushel, and tjja,t here the price was Is 6d — that there was a difference of no less than 2s. per bushel between the two colonies. With an interchange of products the price would naturally ; rise Is m this colony and be decreased Is m . Victoria' ;"An t d'th»t ; 'increase of Is per bushel 'would' mean something like half a'niillidh 'of money to New. ZeaMid. This was an astounding fact^{ft Voice :" AVhaJ; is thediity oiv p) If the A duty on oats lyasl! as. lie » was < , informed, 6d per busnet, that would mean a quarter of.a'milijon of money.; The South-; ■crn, portion .$ New Zealand was tremendously interested m this question, as one-half of the total quantity produced m this colony was grown iin Otago. •In what way, lie asked, could New Zealand suffer detriment ;by the proposed interchange of commodities ? We should be benefited |by the sale of our oats, barley, dairy produce, coal, timber, and other things, and a comparison of : these with the products we should get front Victoria would show clearly.that we had nothing whatever to fear from the ! proposed interchange^ biithad ! everything to gain."