Dominion’s Income

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 313, 26 March 1928, Page 8

Dominion’s Income

TEN MILLION TO THE GOOD Auckland Shares in Improvement AN all-round increase in the volume and value of New Zealand exports has been a conspicuous .feature of the current produce season. The improvement benefits the Auckland Province substantially, as both wool and dairy produce have contributed to the general increase.

( RATIFICATION at the trend of V*" New Zealand’s trade was expressed by the Prime Minister, the Hon. J. G. Coates, in an address to the Reform League at Wellington on Friday. He quoted figures showing that an adverse trade balance of £3,837,924 last season had now been • switched to a favourable balance of nearly nine millions. The actual figure he quoted, as the margin of exports over impoi-ts, was £5,597,436, this repre-

senting the trend for the 11 months of the current finanfial year, during which the value of exports has mounted from £41,111,447 last year to £53,724,970, while imports have slightly fallen away. As another month of export values has yet to be grouped with the statistics quoted, it is reasonable to assume that the balance for the year will be 10 million pounds, a direct contribution to the pockets of the people of New Zealand, and a sum which should have a very brightening effect on trade conditions generally. AUCKLAND’S SHARE Auckland’s share in the shower of wealth that the higher export returns precipitate should be sufficient to dis-

pel any need for pessimism as to the immediate future outlook. Contributing roughly one-fourth to the aggregate of the Dominion's exports. Auckland should garner £2,250.000 as a result of the higher production and better prices overseas, and the sum total that the province collects from its exports, in butter, cheese, wool and meat alone, should be close to 124 millions. Subject to analysis, the return for the province, in round figures, should work out as follows: —

Wool 3.210,000 Beef .. - 100,000 Lamb and mutton .. .. 760,000 Cheese 1,200,000 Butter .. .. .. .. .. .. 7,000,000 Total £12,270,000 Factors in the great improvement in the income from pastoral production have been better prices overseas, and a greater yield within New Zealand. Wool has shotfrn an increase both in quantity and value, the exports so far this season being 63,262 above those for the same period in 1926-27. Lamb and mutton exports show an increase of over a quarter of a million hundredweight, with an increased value of over half a million pounds, while butter and cheese advances have been even more gratifying. In the Auckland dairying districts the season opened with conspicuous promise. The rich growth of grass was such, as a result of a very wet spring, that production exceeded all estimates, while the soaring yield here was signalled overseas by an equally gratifying development, a handsome increase in the prices paid for New Zealand dairy produce. With the exception of a period of slight depression following the Christmas vacation at Home, these rates have been maintained through the season, and their consistency has compensated for the local drop in production brought about by the serious dry spell. THE DAIRYING PROVINCE Any marked increase in the figures paid for dairy produce must soon be reflected in the Auckland Province, which now produces practically twothirds of New Zealand’s butter output, and one-sixth of the cheese. The general return from the export markets is highly satisfactory to the province, and means that the gain from the larger income will be distributed not only to dairy farmers, but also to woolgrowers and other pastoralists. This wide distribution of a very large sum of money should mean an era of renewed prosperity and optimism.