AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12635, 24 October 1905, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

AMERICAN PROFITS FROM NEW

ZEALAND

During the year 1904 agricultural implements to the value of £82,388 were imported into this colony from America. According to a local authority (says the •Christchiirch "Press") who is interested in metal manufacturing, these figures, ■when closely examined, give a very good illustration of how the values of imported machines rise in course of transit, ■and how New Zealand is affected from a manufacturing point of view through tho American importations. Approximately last year 1200 reapers and binders were landed in New Zealand from America. The value of these machines in New York is roughly estimated at £24,000, in New Zealand £30,000, while tho selling value (that is, the price at which they are disposed of to the farmer) is figured out at £48,000. The cost of material used in the manufacture of these machines is set down at £12,000, and of labour £9600, making a total cost of £21.600. In New Zealand, where higher wages obtain, the labour required for the manufacture of the sf.mo number of machines would have meant an expenditure of £14,400. Similar comparisons apply in the case of mowers and reapers. None of the machines mentioned are at present manufactured in New Zealand. The same authority has been calculating what the American invasion meant in respect of imported machines of a type which aro manufactured in New Zealand. The 10U0 <!ri]ls landed in tho colony from America in 1904 had a value of £22,500 when shipped (at, say, the port of New York): in Now Zealand their selling value 'jumped to £28,000, and the sell" in. r^ value approximately ultimately reached the vesy respectable sum of £42.500. The cost of American labour used in produc'ng these machines and cost of material was about £19,000. The 800 cultivators imported had a value on board ship at New York of £12,000, in New Zealand the landing value was approximately £14,400, and the aggregate selling price to the farmer £23,400, the labour and material used necessitating