The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1913. BRIGHT PROSPECTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 197, 9 January 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1913. BRIGHT PROSPECTS.

Whilst the quantity of dairy produce Taranaki is exporting is practically stationary, though the better . prices give an improving financial return, our wool and meat production is increasing by leaps and bounds. This is due to the "bringing in" of our back country, which is eminently suited to sheep. At the present rate of development, it should not be many years before both woo* and mutton figure very largely in our exports. We do not say they will equal our dairy exports, which will always take first position, though the fact that production is not increasing to the extent it should be is a feature that is disquieting, for it shows that better farming is not general, and that a great proportion of the land is actually going back. Maybe, this tendency will soon be arrested. Our leading farmers are alive to the necessity of employing up-to-date methods, as is evidenced in many ways, but the great bulk can be doing little to improve their herds or their pastures. Could they but content themselves with smaller areas and concentrate their energies and attention upon them, the dairy production of the province would quickly rise, and it is not too much to expect that in the course of a few years it would be doubled. It h almost impossible to tell what the v .- 00 l and mutton of thc F ovinnß

amount to, for a greal I'eal is railed south, but the increase ill the exports from the ports is most matrked, the value in 1911-12 being jp 229,408, as against £142,054 in 1909-10. For the last six months there has Ibeen a considerable increase both inl production* and value, and when the official figures are available they should make interest-' ing reading. The sheep farfcner is having, and is likely to continue to have for some time to come, a lvery good innings. The demand for wool is increasing everywhere, beingi brought about by the general prosperity which civilised nations have enjoyfed during recent years, and to the Consequent higher standard of living thai has followed. Throughout the worlM the demand for woollen, fabrics has lincreased in a most marked degree, and, slo experts tell us, nowhere more than inl tropical and semi-tropical regions. E?or the manufacture of the light fabric 1 suitable to those climates the finest oflwool is required, and this to an extent Accounts for the sharp advances in thalt class. The development in this direction is spoken of as something new alid one

whose liimts have not yet been! reached. The 'heavier wools, too, are tending much wider markets, the call for woollen garments (as distinct from worsted) of all kinds being a remarkable feature in the industry. Among the laboring classes the advantages and ultimate economy of .good woollen material has »o doubt always been well recognised! but it is only the improved wages of latei years which have enabled them in appreciable numbers to abandon the less (serviceable and lower-priced goods of mixed or doubtful origin. The trade in hosiery and knitted goods has shown an o:q|uision little short of phenomenal, and jby this, it is said, the Continental alnd American manufacturers have profiled even to a greater extent than those lot Great Britain, so. creating a fresh strong foreign competition for the coaisiii" grades of raw material. This widespread increased demand has been melt jiby a very serious* shortage in the Australian output for the present season!, attributable no doubt to heavy losses on sheep during the drought of last year.l From the latest Australian returns audi estimates to hand we gather that in'l New South Wales alone the season threatens to show a deficiency as compared with the last of something like 220,000 hales. This deficiency in bulk h further aggravated by a fall in average weight which, for the two States named, will represent from 121b to 151b per bale. It will thus be seen that in the Commonwealth the improvement in prices is likely to 'be much more than counterpoised by the loss in bulk and poundage, and that Australia's wool cheque this season will probably be very substantially less than that for 1911-12. Climatic conditions have stood against us here in New Zealand, but only to a very moderate extent, and we may well look forward' to a much better aggregate financial return this season than last. Our Sydney contemporaries congratulate the woolgrowers on the good prospect which the election of a President pledged to tariff reform opens up of a wider market in the United States, where the heavy protective duties have heretofore prohibited the importation of any hut the finer grades of wool suited for manufacture of the more expensive fabrics. Already we have been informed by cable that a special session of Congress is to be called for March to revise the tariffs downward, and doubtless American agents will be encouraged by this to bid for classes of wool which they have hitherto passed by. Looked at from every aspect the prospects of a continued good and probacy improving market for New Zealand's main staple product were never better than they are at present.