The Wairarapa Daily. ONDAY, MAY 18, 1889. The Trade of the Colonies.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3203, 13 May 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. ONDAY, MAY 18, 1889. The Trade of the Colonies.

The Australian Insurance and Banking Record supplies some very interesting figures of tho trade of the Australasian Colonies during the year 1888. The total imports are given at £65,050,000, and the exports at £56,625,000, leaving adebit balance ot £8,400,000, for which Victoria alone is more than responsible with her trade deficit of £10,118,371. In New South Wales the difference was only £25,840 in favor ot the imports; Queensland, has a balance ot

£1,880,847 on the same' side, and Tasmania £276,798. Only two of . the Colonies exported more than they imported, and of these New Zealand is credited with the handsome balance ot £1,825,425. The other, South Australia, figures, for £1,170,499. The influence which is exercised o;er the trade returns'by Government loans is somewhat remarkable. Victoria and Queensland hare been borrowing rather heavily during the year, and they have been by far the heaviest importers in comparison with their exports speoie being, of course, excluded. On the other hand, New Zealand, South Australia, and New South Wales, which have for some time past been laboring under the weight of extravagant borrowing, and are making a determined effort to pull themselves together, show either a margin of exports over imports, or only a small margin on the other side, which is more than accounted for by the inoreased value of the goods on arrival. The condition of affairs in Victoria is said to be causing a great deal of anxiety to its publio.men, ajidtheEecordsimply scouts the idea that it. can ooutinuo, The cause of the unsatisfactory state of affairs is by the Eecord ascribed to the large influx of capital during the time of inflation. It is oompared to. the sudden application of large doses of alcohol to the body, with the usual results, namely, the wildest excitement, followed by severe prostratiom. The period of speculation is stigmatised as having been almost always unprofitable to the individual, and entirely so'to the community. The Eecord is of opinion that a peripd of severe prostration must follow in Victoria, but that, if the proper steps are taken, it will pull itself together jusf as New Zealand, Ne>v South Wales and South Australia Jiavo done, During that period of depression the ipjpprts must necessarily fall off, and continue low until the proper balance is re-established, It is Batisfaotofy" I 'that auob an authority as the Eecord recogpises the results of the effort of our own Colony to pull itself together. The lesson has been a very severe one to New Zealand, and wo'truat it will not be thrown away. Victoria is only just beginning to learn it.