News Items.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 22734, 16 May 1905, Page 4

News Items.

Commenting upon the prospects for the. dairying industry, the “ Taranaki Herald” remarks: —Perhaps the most satisfactory feature is that the market is kept almost "bare, so that there will he little or no stored butter to be worked off in the spring b 'fore the new season’s make is placed on the market. With ail the dry weather the dairy farmers have, on the wnole, had a fairly good season, and there is nothing to warrant a gloomy spirit. The exports of dairy produce from Taranaki are lightly larger this season than last, so that, allowing for a moderate increase in the herds, the average output will be very little smaller than usual while the prices are quite equal. All over the colony there seems to TnTprsgsidnTHatrdaypression rules in Taranaki, owing to the ■supposed drought and other, causes. What there is to warrant such an impression we really cmuotsee. Property is changi.ig hands freely, and numbers of people from other parts of the c deny are taking up land here. Cattle are fetching poor prices, it is true, but it is more than likely that in the spring there will be a grert revival. Everything points to th 3 continuance for at least auother year of the great prosperity the colony has enjoyed for so long. The low price ruling for cattle (saysthe Western Star) is affecting many farmers thoughout the district. Innumerable cases have been heard of farmers buying a mob of cattle at £3 10s per head, and after keeping them for a season, have been offered £3, being a loss of 10s, apart from the loss of feed, commission etc. The increase of stock is due to a falling off in the export trade. For 1903, 281 404 cwt of beef was shipped from the colony, and in 1904 only 181, 905 cwt. was exported, being a decrease of close on 100,000 cwt. For the quarter ending March of this year 170 cwt only was exported from Lyttelton, that being the only port in the South Island to ship beef from. The largest export of beef was shipped in 1901, a great part of which went to So#l> Africa. Trade, however, has been on the decrease, and at present little of our beef finds its Avay to that quarter. Hopes are held out, however, that on completion of the Panama Canal, which will considerably shorten the distance to the Home market this trade will .be revived, as it is only an outlet for our beef that will tend tojraise the value of cattle.