The Colony's Exports.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7834, 29 May 1905, Page 4

The Colony's Exports.

SOME KKMARIvAHLE FIGURES. TlllO I'XCREASE JN VALUES. A bulletin, issued by the Department of Agiicuiiure, giws some inter, sling information of the colony's exports during the past decide. Wool is, of corns-', or staple product, and it is noteworthy that during tliu last Have years the net vali.es have shown a decided increase, while the bulk exports have shown i.eci.led shrinkages. 'lhis is due to th; enchanced values lately ruling/ In 1903 we exported 100.5(>1,4541b, l.ikl rec-ived us puyn.eiu £8,5)21,-104 ■ :a I5)0l ii.e export recrrd wi s lowered to 155,/4u,u4(iiii, ui.t >h- «"om

a,- tettirn rose to i" 1903 our export sanli to ]45,46,,tldalb, but the values leaped to ilo,880.198, easily exceeding the colony s .revious beat record of £1,749,282, Achieved in 15)00.

1 r i;en beef worth £'29,Wl was exported in 189(5, the weight being 2fi,24ocwt. The figures lor the year ..nded March HI, .15)05, showed an incteise to £192,104, and 281,404cwt. The records for 3903 were higher still, £881,823 and 281,104cwt. UTiere was a drop in 15)01, and another in 15)05. A corresponding decline is shown in mutton carcases for tho same periods, the 1908 figures being £1,515,595 and 1,-13,-142cwt ; these for 1904 arc £1,458,521 and 1,149,404cwt, and those for 1905 £1,25)1,005 and 942,215cwt. In regard to legs and pieces, the failing off is even more noticsablo. In 1903 the value was £107,:.'27 afd the weight 90,69'Jcwt; in the records had sunk to £54,825 and 44,203cwt;,, and in 15)05 there had been a diminution to £82,795 and 28,238c»vt. Exports of lamh during the same periods display shrinkage.' of a few thousand hundredweights, but the enhanced values of the year last closed resulted in a monetary return 1 £,123,112) that eclipsed the pieviotis -best record by over £40,000.

The value ol butter exports exceeded a million sterling in 1903 ; in 1904 the returns were £1 ,410,48-1, nnd in the year closed March 31 last a million and half was exceeded (£l,514,156). Checsei however, fell away liy comparison with the 1904 record, the respective figures being £206,870 and £180,874.

Our export trade in hemp has sprung from 2547 tons, worth £27,508, in 1890, to 28,209 tons, valued at £730,808, in 1905. Tho potatoe export has shrunk during recent years almost to a vanishing point. In 1899, when famine prices ruled in Australia, v.e sold

outside the colony nearly 21,000: ions, for £142,207. but alter that veer the figures dwindled, and seeing; that the area of land in potato cultivation this year is the lowest reCorded in the 10 years, added to which is the fact that potatoes are already scarce in the 'colony, the. probability is- that this year's exports will not reach four figures. 'lhe grain crops of the colony fell

iway considerably, save in the' case of wheat, and the net values realised are much below previous years. Theie were 551,799 bushels of wheal exported in 1905. which returned

£81.935. In 1904 the respective figures were 290,812 bushels and £47,183. In 1903 the returns were very mixi-i lower still, but in the three yeais, 1900-1903, they were reckoned by hundreds of thousands- of pounds.:

Last year's export of oats was less than half the rpiantity exported in 1904. the respective values being £181,953 and £418,493.

Ilarley also shrank' considerably, the 1905 figures being £12.142, and thosj for 1904 £19,904.

Tho value of the total exports of N'e.>v Zealand produce and manufactures rose from £9,158,831 in 1896 to £15.381,330 in 1905.—New Zealand Herald. -