The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3715, 20 January 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1891.

The export trade of our district is always a subject of interest to those who the welfare of the Wairarapa at heart. As the outlet of our pastoral products it is perhaps seen at its best, and off and on paiagraphs in our news columns have recorded the progressive growth of the wool trade and the extraordinary increase in the production of sheep as denoted by the steadily developing dispatches by rail to the metropolis of these two mediums of prosperity and profit to the farmer and those around him. Previously we have only been in a position to quote roughly the figures of various consignments which showed the magnitude the tra de was assuming. Now, however, we are able to give statistics of both the wool traffic and the sheep traffic for a complete decade, and yery sigaificant and highly important the returns are. They show separately and comparatively the number of bales of wool and the number of sheep carried from all Wairarapa stations for the ten years ended 3lst March, 1890, and are here given :

The figures relating to the export | of sheep, showing as they do nearly a six-fold increase at the end of ten yeais, and evidencing a most remark able growth in the mutton producing power of the Wairarapa, call for special notice. The first thing to catch one's eye is the abnormal jump made from 46,802 sheep dispatched during the 1881-82 season to 94,085 for the 1882-83 period. We have not before us any statement as to the exact year in which the frozen meat export trade first commenced, but we do not think we would be wrong in ascribing this wonderful impetus, eight years ago, to its then newly bestowed influence. After a lapse of a year, during which the trade showed still further development, it again made a phenomenal leap from 98.477 sheep for 1883-84 year to 143,570 for 1884-85 year. Subsequently its progress hag been steady and unretarded—an onward

march of successful commerce —until in 1889-90, lnsfi year, the number of sheep railed from the Wan-arapa reached the grand total of 173.079, which, taken at a valuation of twelve shillings and sixpence each, a fair average, means an income for the year from this source alone of over one hundred thousand pounds, or, to be precise £IOB,OOO. Such a result, with a still undimroed prospect beion us, means a glorious future. In it li pa I the life, strength, and fortune of our country. The wool traffic has just doubled itself in ten years. From 6421 bales in 1880-81 season, it has gradually crept up until in 1889-90, our latest record, it reaches the profitable total of 12,001 bales, worth, ata fair average price, £120,000. This, too, does not include the wool which goes out on the sheep's backs in the case o" all sheep exported between January and September—between shearing time. The latter maybe safely reckoned as at least 1200 bales, with 9 value, therefore, of £12,000. It is only when we critically dissect and comparatively examine the statistics of such important factors in the solvent wealth of the country as sheep and wool that we realise the strides we have made in pastoral pursuits, and the fact that our lands are becoming more adequately reproductive, and, in sending to the Old World their healthy growth of valuable commodities, are receiving in natural exchange the current coin ho wellearned by a legitimate and nonspeculative agency, and so necessary to support the vigorous policy of a young country. The significance of this utterance will he more truly brought home to us when it is realised that our sheep export trade and the sale of our wool bring into the Wairarapa annually a sum closely approaching a quarter of a million of money, that is taking the figures as they now are, and we cannot do less, for they are still increasing. May they year by year continue to dc so, and miy our lands pour forth their riches in ever increased volume.

No. of bales of sheep wool 1880-1 ... ... 30,803 6,421 1881-2 ... ... 46,802 6,137 1882-3 ... ... 94,085 7,313 18834 ... 98,477 8,146 1884-5 ... 143,570 8,175 !88b-6 ... ... 149,749 9,655 1886-7 ... ... 148,468 11,215 1887-8 ... ... 167.305 10,855 1888-9 ... ... 168,148 11,701 1889-90 ... ... 173,079 12,001