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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 23

Minerals

Minerals,

the continuous development of our coal-mines has added materially to our exports, and lessened our imports for home consumption, as the following comparison figures indicate:—
Year. Coal raised in New Zealand. Coal imported. Coal exported.
Quantity. Increase. Quantity. Decrease.
1879 231,218 158,076 7,195
1883 421,764 43,492 123,540 6,042 7,952
1885 511,063 30,232 130,202 18,242 50,248
1886 534,353 23,290 119,873 10,329 47,037
1887 558,620 24,267 107,230 12,643 44,312
1888 613,895 55,275 101,341 5,889 69,040

The decrease in imports, and the large increase in exports are healthy signs, and with the encomiums lately passed on the quality of some of our West Coast coal, every encouragement and facility should be given to enlarge and increase the output.

The gold-mines yielded for the year ending 31st March last, 208,902 ozs., as against 191,961 ozs. for the previous year, being an increase of 16,948 ozs., and with the improved system of hydraulic sluicing, together with the encouraging prospects of working the vast extent of alluvial beaches and river-beds known to exist in the colony, ground hitherto considered Valueless will be worked, probably, to the decided advantage of future yearly returns.

This has been a year remarkable for the extraordinary increase in the exports over the imports, and though in the abstract some make it a matter of argument whether this necessarily implies substantial progress, yet I am of the opinion, expressed some months back in the Melbourne Argus, that "without accepting the dogma of the balance of trade in its old restricted sense, we yet think that, where countries which are heavily indebted to other countries export more than they import, they are in a fair way." If this is a truism, then the colony has prospered indeed.

As the subject of reciprocal Customs tariffs is likely to engage the serious deliberations of the Australasian colonies in the near future, it may interest you to note the respective totals of interchange of commodities between the United Kingdom, United States, and the colonies with New Zealand for the past year:—
Imports from Exports to Balance in favour of Exports.
£ £ £
United Kingdom 3,725,624 5,708,517 1,982,893
New South Wales 428,263 686,320 208,057
Victoria 705,631 704,420
Queensland 27,870 78,012 50,142
South Australia 15,420 34,531 19,111
Tasmania 41,407 58,254 16,847
United States 323,069 323,716 647

It is perhaps just as well to draw attention to the fact that the imports from Victoria and New South Wales probably include large transhipments from India and China, and should be duly allowed for. Shipping companies will probably recognise this full well. The total imports into New Zealand of 5,941,900l., show a decrease of 303,615l., probably due to the reduction in expenditure on material for public works, the stoppage of the inflow of borrowed capital, the policy of importers restricting orders to within measurable limits of prospective sales, and to the increased production stimulated by a more protective tariff. Generally, there has been a marked absence of the forced and cutting trade usually the outcome of overburdened stocks, and a noticeable presence of a steady and profitable turnover on the business carried through. The high freights that have ruled on merchandise from London to New Zealand have added materially to the landed cost, and though the present rates are somewhat lower, yet they are much higher than obtain to Australia, and our shipping companies will do well to consider the advisability of a reduction before any of the regular trade is diverted to arrive through other channels than by direct vessels. The latest returns in bankruptcies show for the colony 155 less failures than were recorded a year since. As far as Canterbury is concerned, the number of insolvents has continued steadily to decrease. In this connection it is pleasing to observe that the Bankruptcy Bill now before the House embodies many of the clauses that have been persistently advocated by this Chamber, showing page 15 that the considerable time and labour expended by the Committee has not been thrown away. If we turn for a moment to the accumulative profits made by the masses, as shown by the business done in our Savings Banks, we find there are 103,046 depositors, as against 97,496 in 1887, with a total credit amount of 2,691,692l., as against 2,407,775l., or 26l. Is. per head—all figures that exceed any previous records, showing that to a number of colonists their earnings over their expenses have been decidedly to their advantage. It is worthy of remark that 62,831 persons, or nearly three-fourths of the whole of the depositors, had sums not exceeding 20l. to their credit, leading to the conclusion that the late term of depression the colony has experienced has been such as to affect the profits of the previously rich and well-to-do members of the community in a far larger proportion than it has affected the well-being and employment of the working classes, and though these have, without question, had more or less of hard times, yet the full force and the bitterest experience has been borne by capital, and not so much by labour. Though our population, at the end of December 1888, only numbered 607,380 (exclusive of Maoris), as against 603,361 in 1887, yet the settlement of our lands has progressed at a very rapid rate, and as the tide of emigration has been against the colony, it is the opinion of the Secretary for the Crown Lauds that the new occupiers must be the sons of the older colonists; and if this very reasonable conclusion is correct, we have the very best class of men to work the soil to the best advantage. It appears that, including eighty-one selectors of small grazing runs, that 1779 selectors took up 444,742 acres under conditions binding themselves to improvements, numbers which compare very favourably with any previous year for a long time past. It is gratifying to know that the twenty-two village settlements in Canterbury have been self-supporting almost from the very beginning, and are making steady progress. The keen competition in connection with the sale of runs in Canterbury and Otago has been one of the noticeable features of the present year, and is another of the many evidences of restored confidence, as also is the eagerness displayed to secure any agricultural properties that from time to time are open to purchasers.

I have surely said enough, gentlemen, without further amplification, to satisfy the most captious critic that the year reviewed has been one of tangible progress and material realisation of the hopeful views so ardently put forth by this Chamber. As colonists, we feel like the individual who has emerged from difficulties that threatened for a somewhat prolonged unhappy period to engulf him, but who, all the time, was in a state of absolute solvency, without being confident enough to feel fully assured of it. We realise now that, with the finances of the colony clearly understood, and under the control of a master-hand; with natural resources and many reproductive works in excess of any possible national liabilities; with palpable evidences of renewed trust exhibited in the highest financial circles of the world; and with the financial burdens of personal responsibilities amongst our wool kings, our tillers of the soil, and our traders, considerably lightened by the receipt of better returns for their labours than they have ever as a whole in one year experienced before, we may well take a fresh and determined start, thus profiting by an experience only too dearly bought. Lot us avoid the blunders that have marred the colony's progress, and have taken so long to rectify, and have led to the fair name of this most beautiful and most productive of colonies being for so many years traduced by her detractors, and too lightly esteemed by many of those who, having received permanent and pecuniary benefit, have given too much credence to the cry of " wolf," and remained all too long absent from our shores. Granting the period reviewed has been exceptionally favourable to almost every interest, "what has happened may well happen again," and in any case our country has come out triumphantly though a very severe ordeal. So great is our growing importance, and so many are the links that bind us to the various centres of active business life, that we can ill afford to be cut off from all communication, as occurred but recently; and we should do all in our power to hasten the time when, by a duplicate cable to Australia, or, better still, by a direct lino to Honolulu, thence to Vancouver, we should relegate to a remote contingency the risk of a repetition of entire severance from the outer world, so painfully experienced a fortnight since.

I sometimes fear that the energy, foresight, and earnestness of purpose that must have been in our fore fathers and early settlers are woefully lacking in these latter days, otherwise the absence, or apparent absence, of deep interest in enterprising movements of a national or provincial character would not be so pronounced—e. g., the apathy shown by Canterbury in the coming New Zealand Exhibition, which of all the provinces has reaped the most benefit from the year it has been my good fortune to review. Yet how backward our people are, with a few noteworthy exceptions, in showing their thankfulness and joy by liberally contributing of their increased gains to make a splendid—no, a true and real—display of the wealth which is concentrated in so many forms around us, and which, properly represented, could not fail to be indeed splendid and striking to a degree, and might so advertise us that we should speedily have an influx of moneyed and practical immigrants, who, through their personal exertions, would fill our granaries and increase our manufactures tenfold. Having had twelve years' experience of Australia, and nearly six of New Zealand, I say without hesitation that this country will, in no distant future, owing to the conditions within its borders, come to the front with permanent prosperity. Would that words of mine could energise each member into freshness of interest and real conscious belief in facts which are so patent and indisputable, so that this highly-favoured province of ours may not have its progress retarded, but, on the contrary, be pushed ahead by intelligent and active co-operation, and our highest civic, political, commercial, agricultural, and industrial positions filled by the best men, with the greatest gifts, devoted to the advancement and development of this grand and magnificent province of Canterbury. It affords me much pleasure in moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet.

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London: Printed by William Clowes and Son's, Limited, Stamford Street and Charing Cross.