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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

Commercial

Commercial.

The imports of Canterbury for 1899 were valued at £1,569,239. For 1890 the total value of imports to Canterbury was £1,269,572. This shows an increase of very nearly £300,000, or 20 per cent., within ten years. For the same period Auckland progressed from £1,406,477 to £2,258,584—an increase of 60 per cent.; Wellington from £1,282,821 to £2,181,582, an increase of 70 per cent., and Otago from £1,836,754 to £2,149,567, an increase of 17 per cent. Thus Canterbury has increased its imports more slowly than any other of the large provinces, and in total value of imports for 1899 stood fourth on the list; Auckland, it will be observed, coming first, Wellington second, and Otago a close third.

In exports a very different tale has to be told. Lyttelton was far ahead of any other port in the colony for 1899 with a total value of exports of £2,311,293; Wellington exported goods to the value of £1,896,291. Auckland's exports were worth £1,896,291, and Dunedin's £1,316,385. There are various subsidiary port returns to be added to these, but they still further increase the extraordinary superiority of Canterbury. Timaru exported goods to the value of £726,476, which was only £25,000 short of the whole export trade of Invercargill and Bluff Harbour for the year. To Auckland's exports may be added £283,906 for Gisborne and £136,219 for Kaipara, giving a total for the province of £2,280,729. But the aggregate for Lyttelton and Timaru is £3,037,769; and this does not include in Canterbury's total the coastal trade, which would increase the exports largely.

For the year ending the 30th of June, 1900, the exports from Lyttelton were £2,761,839, and from Timaru £974,619; total £3,736,458, representing a large increase on the previous year. The total exports during the same period for the whole of the colony were valued at £13,368,600, so that Canterbury contributed more than one-fourth to the value of the colony's exported products.

The imports for the same period were: Lyttelton, £1,635,947; Timaru, £140,384; total, £1,776,331. This left a “balance of trade” in favour of Canterbury of £1,960,127. In Auckland the excess of exports over imports for 1899 was only £22,143. In Wellington the excess of exports over imports for 1899 was £97,334. In Otago the excess ran the other way, and the “balance of trade” was against the province to the extent of £627,573.

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Scene at the Head of Tasman Valley.

Scene at the Head of Tasman Valley.

An instructive estimate of the commercial development of the provinces may be gained by considering the decade 1888 to 1897. In that period Auckland was the only one of the four large provinces in which the imports exceeded the exports; but the exports fell below the imports to the amount of £1,554,809. Wellington had an excess of exports to the amount of £338,831; Otago's exports were larger than her imports by £2,890,568; but in Canterbury the “balance of trade” gave an excess of £10,991,892 exports over imports for the ten years, or at the rate of more than £1,000,000 a year. Making all possible allowance for goldmining in Auckland, or for specie remittances and Government expenses in Wellington, the development of Canterbury's export trade is, in comparison with that of the other provinces, positively startling.