Trade Fluctuations

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 258, 21 January 1928, Page 8

Trade Fluctuations

NEW ZEALAND EXPORTS Produce for World Markets IF there is ever romance in the growth of trade there is a romantic flavour about the manner in which the value of New Zealand’s butter and cheese exports has climbed until it exceeds the return from wool. . Butter and cheese now lead the way in exports, ana their leadership is attributable to the development of dairying in the Auckland Province.

rriHE sheep and the cow continue to dominate New Zealand's export Wool, frozen meat, butter and cheese furnish an ever-increasing proportion of the total quantity of goods shipped overseas. Their percentage according to value reaches 91.9 in the latest issue of statistics, and leaves agricultural products (2 per cent,) and mining and forest exports, each of which are less, trailing hopelessly in the rear. The past 20 years has seen the ratio of New Zealand exports execute a re-

shuffle on a giant scale. In 1907 wool, meat and dairy produce were 74 per cent, of the total in export values, with mining much more important then than now, at the relatively high figure of 12.1. Agricultural products rose from .8 per cent, in 1907 to 5 per cent, in 1909. Beneath that modest percentage the figure for agricultural exports has since fluctuated, and the commodities of the tilled field remain of small comparative importance. Their decline, however, does not parallel the fall in mineral exports and timber. The latter’s percentage has fallen from 4.5 in 1907 to 1.9 in the past year, while minerals, commanding 12.1 per cent, of the total market in 1909, now reach only 1.9 per cent. CHANCES OF RECOVERY In this phase of the export trade there is always the chance of a glorious recovery. Rich mineral resources may be uncovered by the chance stroke of a pick, or exploitation processes perfected by the genius of the modern alchemist may provide the touchstone which converts worthless ore into treasure of fabulous value. Engineers whose principals rely on such processes are even now probing in the Coromandel Ranges, and if that great field stages a recovery its

renewed importance will be a powerful stimulus to the financial pulses o. Auckland city. . Far the greatest proportion of New Zealand's mineral export, of which gord, silver and coal are the most important, goes to Australia, with India and the United States good customers for gold. . The United Kingdom offers a steady market for coal, paying as much as £202,000 for this commodity m 19-J, and £167,000 in 1926. Britain and Ireland continue to be by far the most important of New Zealand s customers, taking 77 per cent, of the exports in 1926, but it is pastora. products, such as wool and dairy produce in which they are most mterButter is perhaps New Zealand s most widely-distributed commodity. Besides going to the United Kingdom in immense quantities, it goes increasingly to Canada and Australia, and in addition is purchased by HongKong, Straits Settlements, Pacific Islands, France, Germany, Japan, Philippine Islands. United States, and Hawaii. The trade to the Pacific Islands is of growing importance, especially to Auckland, which yearly sends about £25,000 worth of potted and preserved meats to Western Samoa alone. Through this port passes most of the £50,000 worth of merchandise which Samoa purchases every year from New Zealand, and the gravity of any boycott, such as that threatened by the commercial interests of Apia, is therefore easy to realise. FUNGUS FOR CHINA New Zealand’s exports of manufactured goods are of such minor importance as to suggest that for the present the Etominion’s industrial enterprises are chiefly engaged in meeting domestic requirements. Manufactured lines go chiefly to Australia, and consist largely of specialised products, such as agricultural implements and dairying machinery. For a time New Zealand hosiery manufacturers enjoyed a promising trans-Tas-man trade, worth £160,759 in 1922. Through progressive declines, unfortunately, this exchange has fallen until in 1926 it was worth only £875 to the Dominion. There are many other instances of spasmodic export movements. Eggs are a promising item, sales to the United Kingdom in this line having risen from £142 in 1922 to £7,998 in 1926. Oats, however, collapsed from £42,731 in 1922 to £52 in 1926, while wheat fell away from £109,976, the value of the sales to the United Kingdom in 1922, to £531 the following year, and nothing at all in t.h« three years thereafter. Apples, for which there has at times been keen demand in South America, are another fluctuating export item. New Zealand’s best customers in 1926 w ere the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada, in that order. After that came France, which has been on the market for wool. Odd products find their way to many other countries, and a steady trade is‘carried on in fungus, of which about £IO,OOO worth is shipped every year to the epicures of China.