The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, AUG. 16, 1905.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7900, 16 August 1905, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, AUG. 16, 1905.

THE COLONY'S TRADE. o It is always interesting to vault the quarterly returns ot imports and exports, as they furnish; a valuable and reliable index of the stale ot the colony's trade. The figures for the second quarter of the present year, as I published in last week's Gazette, 'form no exception to the rule, ami when taken with the three preceding quarters, afford very encouraging Us | timony to the soundness ot the eoun- | try's position, as well as showing tin I continued increase in the value of exports, which, during the past live [tears, has risen from twelve to fiiI teen million pounds. Hut for the exceptional increase which was show; in 1903 consequent on the temporal'} [demand for our products in Australia 'and South Africa there would doubt less have been a steady rise year by year, but, of course, in the peric*. referred to there was a sudden jump, which was not maintained in 1901, though the figures for the current, year arc ahead of those for 1903, a fact which should engender a fcclinfi of satisfaction amongst producers an:: exporters. Wool and sheepskins arc chiefly responsible for the increase it. the value of the present year's exports, the excess on those items over the previous year being no less thai. £1,152,49 c. This more than compensates for the falling-off in dairy produce consequent on the adverse sea son, yet in spite of the smaller quantity of butter exported from Taranaki, the total value was some three thousand pounds larger than for 19034. With the bright prospects which seem likely to attend the coming season's operations there is every reason to regard the outlook as most promising.