TRADE RETURNS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4494, 14 August 1875, Page 2

TRADE RETURNS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir,™l have read witli some degree of interest the loading article in your issue of the Cth inst., “ on the trade of New Zealand,” based upon the figures published in the New Zealand Gazette: and as is usually the case witli the local papers when the figures apparently show a prosperous state of things for their own particular province, you have considered it your duty to point this out in the case of Wellington with a largo amount of satisfaction ; and you carry on the matter by showing that, if Wellington goes onprogressingat the same rate for a short time,she will be the second city in importance in New Zealand. This, sir, looks very well on paper, but to those who are intimately acquainted with the bona fide trade of this country, (and pardon me for even doubting that you are not,) the figures you have published must indicate a large amount'of danger in the future for Wellington, it she continues to “ progress,” as youhave it, at the same rate as during the June quarter. lam alluding to the imports, of course : and writing from Christchurch, where the imports have fallen off more than in any other port, and which a year ago was very much overstocked, I can truly sympathise with the Wellington traders in their apparent prosperity. A year ago shipments were rolling into this province tens of thousands in excess of requirements, and what was the result ? Why, a stringency in the money market that almost amounted to a panic. It is a notorious fact that every province in New Zealand has been enormously over-importing. Go around to your various merchants, and ascertain how many “thousands of pounds’ worth of surplus stock” they hold, that they wish was at the “ bottom of the sea.” Consult your bankers, and see if they think it a sign of prosperity and advancement.

I do not write with a view of deprecating Wellington as a commercial city, but having seen for some considerable time past the ill effects of over-import-ing, I cannot sit quietly and read your article gloating over the fact as an evidence of prosperity when it is not so.

I am extremely satisfied with the position this province holds in the returns, viz., a falling off in imports of £IBO,OOO, and the result is well known and felt here. Canterbury is a sounder and healthier place than it was a year ago. Sir, had your article been written by one of your merchants, 1 venture to predict that a “ note of warning” would have been sounded, and not the congratulatory article you published, As a trader I emphatically say there is no greater curse to a country than over-importing. The published figures of imports for June quarter are Dunedin—Decrease on 1871 quarter ~ £14,000 Auckland ~ ~ ~ .. 90,000 Lyttelton ~ ~ ~ • • 180,000 Wellington—lncrease on 1874 quarter 195,000 _ The above figures speak for themselves, hut not m the way you indicate. —I am, &c., Merchant. Christchurch, August 7.