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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Trade

Trade.

In matters of trade, Auckland has been more subject to excessive fluctuations than any other part of the Colony. From the lowest depths of despair to the towering heights of prosperity, is a transition frequently accomplished by commercial Auckland in an incredibly short time. The cards of commerce are constantly shuffled so as to cause rapid rises and disastrous declines among business houses large and small. It could page 61 hardly be otherwise in a town dependent upon a province so largely engaged in the gold, gum, and timber industries. But Auckland is every year growing more independent of these interests, and trade is therefore steadying a good deal.

Auckland has been called “The Grave of Enterprise,” and certainly very many once-flourishing individuals, firms, companies and institutions have dropped quietly but quickly out of existence during Auckland's comparatively short history, and there still is reason to fear that a similar fate awaits many of their successors. There are, however, some good examples of continued prosperity, of which the New Zealand Herald and Auckland Star are among the best; and some of the more recently established wholesale and retail houses are doing an exceedingly large trade.

A noticeable feature of trade in Auckland is the very large country business transacted by retailers. Friday is the regular market day, but the stranger has no need to ask any questions on that head. Country people assemble in the city on market day in great numbers, and when doing their shopping generally pay cash on the spot. Nor is the country trade confined to market day. The improved opportunities for cheap travelling between the city and the outlying districts, have led to country people finding it both pleasant and cheap to run into town and transact their own business.

In this matter Auckland differs from Wellington as much as in others. The country towns of the province are comparatively insignificant when compared with those of Wellington, but the compensation lies in the extraordinary development of the chief town, where many of the retail shops are palatial establishments, in which enormous businesses are conducted. Even in the smaller shops the amount of “turnover” is greater than in similar shops at the capital, though in most cases the profits are smaller.

Speaking generally, the business men of Auckland are clever, energetic and shrewd, looking keenly after trade and thoroughly convinced that they must make their own way. Many of them work long hours, and not a few of them live short lives in consequence. Grey heads on young shoulders are commoner than need be, and for this the climate is blamed, which is gross calumny, as is testified by the youthful appearance of hundreds of men who are well advanced in years, but who take life more easily.

Truly the trade of Auckland is great, and though there is a “cut fine” stamp about it, it is capable of satisfactory explanation. The producers have to work very hard for all they get, and must therefore obtain as much as possible for the money they spend. And there are two fairly large classes—the workers and those who live on small but certain incomes—who are sufficiently independent to spend their money wherever the best value can be obtained. These conditions, together with the possibility of a large turnover, tend to cut down profits in all directions, and to encourage eager competition for trade on a cash basis. This, of course, makes it possible for the working people to live on considerably lower wages without being much if at all worse off than workers elsewhere, and the final result is that Auckland has less to fear from inter-provincial competition than other towns, and is in a better condition to compete within and throughout the Colony against both Home and foreign manufacturers. This, however, is a position which the whole Colony may view with satisfaction and composure, for Auckland cannot export without importing any more than any other city, and the interprovincial trade, with produce against manufactures thus made possible will be beneficially felt throughout the Colony.