The Patea Mail. Established 1875. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1883. THE COLONY’S BUSINESS PROSPECTS.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1012, 21 March 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1883. THE COLONY’S BUSINESS PROSPECTS.

The general prospects of trade in the Colony during the coming months seem highly satisfactory. If on the one hand there is no remarkable sudden increase of wealth, as in the early days .of the goldfields, on the other band there is every sign of a more lasting prosperity. The wool clip for the past season was good, and it is from that source in large measure that we get either our money, or the equivalent for it, our supplies from the home country. It has been the custom for many years past to undervalue the pastoral industry in a way which a glance at the official returns of our exports would by no means justify, for our wool is still the staple commodity of our export trade. Of course in due time the rnnholder will in very ninny districts give way entirely to the agricultural settler, whose industry when applied to the land is more valuable per acre than that of the grazier. But in the meantime it is consolatory to know that there is very little of our land now, most of which is not already turn* d to some very good account. Then loo,our harvest, which is now gathered in, is a very fair one, the average yield is far in advance of any other Australasian colony, or indeed of almost any country in the world. It would have been still larger had it not been that through unskilful farming in many places an attempt was made to thresh on the ground, instead of properly stacking and then threshing at leisure, the consequence being that a good deal of grain was cither blown away by the high winds or soaked by the rain and damaged. The yield of gold too, keeps up very fairly, and on the West Coast of the Middle Island and elsewhere new fields are being opened up. A new iudifetry lias also been started iu the shipment of frozen meat, which has on the whole given a very fair return, and in some instances a large one, the last price realised being 8d per pound, a highly remunerative one, Nor have we come as yet to the end’ of our blessings by the foregoing enumeration. As regards the actual sinews of war in trade industry, money, we are likely very shortly to be very well off, though now. for some little time past there has been some lightness in the money market. Onr loan of one million for public works has been floated without a hitch, in London, and the money now is almost as thoroughly available .as if it in onr pockets. For credit is money, and whatever some superficial politicians may think to the contrary, it matters a very great deal what the foreign capitalists think of ns. At present they think well of ns obviously, as they have lent us a million at a little over 4 per cent.—a cheaper rate than we ever got it at before. And then, too, lastly, the floating of the Victorian loan of four; millions is a very decided advantage to ns. The largest Of our banking institutions here are mostly Australian, and they have been lately very wary about giving any lengthened accommodation until they knew what demands would be made upon them in their own special sphere of business* And yrhen it .was known that . nearly ; twelve millions would be wanted in Victoria foiv liabilities and public works during the next two years, and that the first attempt; to get four millions loaned was a failure, the banks were naturally looking rather bine, and putting the screw on the weaker of their customers here as well as in Australia, That pressure; has now been withdrawn, arid money is' likely for some months to be compara-; tively easy. Altogether we are in a substantial and even comfortable position ; and the people at Home are beginning to know .it,- In spite of the warnings of the Pall Mall Gazette and other high-class journals in London, the London Stock Exchange, the best barometer of the actual money market there is, believes in ns, and lends ns money readily, for the first time, even more readily than it advances to Victoria. So far as can be seen, nothing hot very gross extravagance, or very bad general management, can retard onr rapid progress.