New Zealand Gazette – 1867 – No. 24

Page 175

✨ Colonial Trade Statistics



THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 175

Imports. Exports.
Victoria £13,257,537 £13,150,748
New South Wales 9,928,595 8,191,170
New Zealand 5,594,977 3,713,218
South Australia 2,927,596 3,129,846
Queensland... 2,505,559 1,153,464
Tasmania ... 762,375 880,965
£34,976,639 £30,219,411

Within the last sixteen years, the two Colonies of Victoria and New South Wales have produced a supply of gold amounting in value to One hundred and fifty millions sterling, five-sixths of which has been the produce of Victoria alone. The Colony of New South Wales has raised from the earth 4,617,100 tons of coal, valued at £2,742,224; and her coal fields north and south of the port of Sydney may be said to be inexhaustible. The Colonies of New Zealand and South Australia are eminently favored in the rich variety of their resources. New Zealand has risen within the last few years to an important position as a producer of gold and wool. In ten years the Colony of South Australia has exported copper of the value of £4,751,638, while the produce of her corn fields is unsurpassed by other countries. The Colony of Queensland, in addition to her pastoral and mineral wealth, has established by successful experiment her capability of growing both cotton and sugar. Nor are the resources of Tasmania unimportant to the British Empire. Her wool, grain and timber, with the oil of her whale fisheries, form a valuable part of Australian exports. In the year 1865 the exports of the associated Colonies, in five articles of production, which are selected for their conspicuous value to the world, amounted to more than twenty-one millions sterling. The results are given from the latest official returns:-

Wool. Gold. Coal. Copper Ore. Grain of all kinds.
Victoria 3,315,109 6,190,317
New South Wales 1,624,114 2,647,668 274,303 ... ...
New Zealand 1,141,761 2,226,474
South Australia 964,397 ... ... 618,472 1,228,480
Queensland... 885,299 101,352 ...
Tasmania 381,625 ... ... ... 107,268
£8,312,305 £11,165,811 £274,303 £618,472 £1,335,748

If the position of the six associated Colonies be tested by the number of the shipping visiting their various ports, its importance to Great Britain will be equally manifest. The shipping returns of 1865 for the Australasian Colonies give an aggregate of arrivals amounting to 1,969,091 tons, and 2,018,224 tons as the aggregate of departures. The following table will show the distribution of this tonnage amongst the six Colonies:-

Inwards. Tons. Outwards. Tons.
Victoria 580,973 599,351
New South Wales 635,888 690,294
New Zealand 295,625 283,020
South Australia 183,102 174,188
Queensland 173,227 167,153
Tasmania 100,276 104,218
1,969,091 2,018,224

The present number of those animals most useful to man, as compared with the number only forty-two years ago, will exhibit alike the progress and the internal wealth of the Colonies. In the year 1825 there were in all Australia, 6142 horses, 134,519 head of horned cattle, and 237,622 sheep. In 1865 the returns for the Australian Colonies alone were as follows:-

Horses. Horned Cattle. Sheep.
Victoria 121,051 621,337 8,835,380
New South Wales 282,587 1,961,905 8,132,511
South Australia 73,993 158,057 3,779,308
Queensland 51,091 887,856 6,810,005
Tasmania 22,152 90,020 1,736,540
550,874 3,719,175 29,293,744

The number of Your Majesty's loyal subjects in Australasia is fast approaching an aggregate of two millions, and the evidences of their successful industry and enterprise which are here recorded, though necessarily brief and imperfect, will not fail to ensure for them Your Majesty's gracious consideration. The interests of commerce are strong in uniting Colonies to the parent country, but stronger still is the glory of an advancing civilization which belongs to the remotest British dependency as part of a great nation under Your Majesty's beneficent reign. Nor will Your Majesty be insensible to those claims of the poorest of your subjects which grow out of affections that cannot be severed. The parent in England and the child in Australia, actually as well as figuratively, feel the need of a closer and more constant intimacy.



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Online Sources for this page:

VUW Te Waharoa — PDF NZ Gazette 1867, No 24




✨ LLM interpretation of page content

💰 Statistical Comparison of Australasian Colonies' Trade, Resources, and Shipping (1865 Returns)

💰 Finance & Revenue
Trade statistics, Imports, Exports, Shipping tonnage, Gold production, Wool, Livestock, Australasian Colonies