FINANCIAL STATE OF THE COLONY.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 250, 2 May 1866, Page 3

FINANCIAL STATE OF THE COLONY.

(From the Neio Zealand Advertiser 23rd April),

In a General Government Gazette, published on Tuesday, we find returns of exports and imports at the various ports throughout the colony during the quarter ending 31st December la3t, with' a comparative statement between those of 1860 and those of 1864, for the same period, and also for the whole year. In 1865 the total value of the exports from the, colony was £3,724,691, against £3,407,909 in 1864, showing an increase of over £300,000, while the imports of 1865 were. £5,587,683, against £6,993,357, or a

decrease of nearly a million and a half. It will be thus seen that the colony as a whole is making gigantic strides towards attaining that balance of export and import which marks a healthy state of commerce, and in the last quarter of this year this is even more clearly marked, the exports being£l,l4o,s4o,against£l,299,77l of imports, whereas in 1864 the exports were only £665,569, against £1,460,732 imports. la 1864, the one was more than double the other, and in 1865 they were nearly balanced. Turning to the detailed accounts of each Province, it will be found that the value of the exports in each case has decreased, except in those of Hawke's Bay and Canterbury, from what they were in the previous year. In the former of these two Provinces, the increase is almost double, the rise being from £26,000 to £51,801, and this is to | be attributed to no exceptional circumstances, but to the steadily increasing prosperity of the little Province itself. Its imports have decreased from £98,217 to £87,683. In Canterbury, onthe other hand, weseeone of those extraordinary advances which only arise out of the exceptional case of which goldfields pouring forth their wealth from the country in which they are discovered. The advance here is from £406,381 to. £1,449,006, or of more than a million sterling, of which over £977,000 was exported from Hokitida alone, and of this £535,000 was exported in the last quarter of the year. Towards this, G-rey mouth only contributed £21,579, and as the diggings there have so marvellously increased since the commencement of the present year, while those of Hokitika have in no way diminished, some idea may be formed of what the returns will be when the next year's account gives to the world a statement of the* immense wealth of tlrs portion of the Colony. There is, however the one fact of the instability of such a source of wealth that must impress itself upon anyone acquainted with the history of countries depending almost solely on their produce of gold, and this is strikingly illustrated by the case of Otago where the exports in the past year are diminished from those of the previous year by over £600,000, the figures being, in 1864, £2,015,877 and in 1865, £1,392,600. In the last quarter of the year alone, the decrease was £96,000, and of the exports for that puarter £15,680 was the value of produce and manufactures of other colonies, England and foreign countries. In this respect of the exportation of foreign produce and manufactures the most marked instance is that of Auckland where this class of exportation exceeds that of all the other Provinces put together during the same period — the last quarter of 1365. The total exportation of foreign produce from the Colony for that quarter was £53,541, and of this Auckland's share £33,985. But this can, of course, be in a great measure accounted for by the fact of the departure from that port; of so many troops whose provisions would be shipments of storos already forwarded from abroad. In Auckland, also, both exports and imports h materially decreased during the past year. In 18t>4, the former were valued at £353,342, and the latter at £2,230,538, and in 1865 they were £299,283, and £1,851,016 respectively. Here, we have strong evidence of that unhealthy state of affairs which gave that Province a fallacious prosperity from which it is now suffering so much. There is no" other Province in which the unfavorable contrast between exports and imports is so great except that of laranaki, where the exports for the past year were only £511, and this all in the last quarter, against £74,140 of imports. In Taranaki, however, there are now such indications of mineral wealth that ere long we may hope to see that hitherto unfortunate Province veying with any other Province in the Colony is prosperity, and exporting to other countries inexhaustible quantities of iron, mineral oil, and, if we may place credence in late reports, even some amount of gold. Marlborough's exports | in both years largely exceeded her imports, though she also has fallen off in both respects during the last yerr. In 1864 she exported proJuce, &c, to the value of £98,536, and imported £25,073 and in 1865 she exported to the amount of £84,318, and imported to that of £13,039. Her exports have been almost exclusively her own produce, and in the last quarter of the latter year there were exports amouuting to £11,710, none of which were foreign produce. The advancement made by the port of Wairau, as compared to that of Picton, may be judged from the following figures. In 1864 there was bnt £2 difference between the exports of the two places, Picton being £49,267 and Wairau £49,269, but in 1865 Picton had lallen to £30,372, and Wairau had. risen to £53,946. In imports Wairau had remained at about the same figure, and Picton fell from £20,279 to £8,228. Nelson does not show so well in the late returns as she did in ' the previous ones, her exports having decreased by about £20,000, and her imports increased by. over £120,000. The increase in the imports may, no doubt, be attributed to the shipments of goods to her port for forwarding to the diggings, and the decrease in her exports would also find a solution in the exodus that has taken place to those same diggings. She also loses a share in the exports in the port of shipment for the goldfields in the Province having been in another Province, to whose credit they would. consequently be placed. Southland's exports and imports are nearly balanced in tne last year, but both have decreased, the imports more particularly. These amounted to £506,751 in 1864, and were only £111,656 in 1865, and th§ exports were £101^362 and £99,422 respectively.

We may now glance at our own Prevince and here we find every symptom of a healthy state of commerce. The imports in the last year were valued at £555,143 against £397,005 of the previous year; but this increase was not necessitated so much for home consumption »a for ye.exDortation to other places,

Wellington being a central port of call for the numerous steamers carrying on a large trade between the Australian colonies and this portion of the Colony. A large proportion of the increase is also due to the Wanganui -Taranaki campaign, carried on during the last year, and is for provisions, &c, for the great body of troops that has been maintained along the West Coast. The imports for 1864 are made up of £369,940 to "Wellington itself, and £27,065 to Wanganui, and for 1865 of £492,216 to Wellington and £62,927 to Wanganui. The exports for the whole year have decreased from £256,929 ' to £220,964, and to this Wanganui contributed only £8 in 1864 and £5,911 in 1865. Though the value of exports has decreased on the whole year, evidence of an improved trade is given in the fact that in the last quarter of the year the exports have nearly reached twice what they were in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, namely from £68,806 they have leaped to £120,966, being distributed thus — Wellington £115,340 — Wanganui £5,626. In 1864, Wanganui contributed nothiug to the exports in. the corresponding quarter. But, there is a still more satisfactory proof of the good trade that this Province has been doing in the large proportion of her exportation* being produce and manufactures, of the colony she exported in that quarter of such £110,509, of foreign produce only £457 and of specie £10,000. Only two other Provinces — Canterbury and Ofcago — have exported as large a' quantity in value, of home produce as Wellington has done in the same time, and this we may certainly look upon as a most favorable proof of the extending commerce of this Province.