Imports of Agricultural Produce in 1897. 441 



;£25,697,ooo, or i^i, 778,000 in excess of the sum at which the 

 corresponding imports of 1896 were valued. Over half the 

 amount is accounted for by the supplies of foreign and 

 colonial butter, of which we received 3,217,801 cwts., declared 

 to be worth 5,9 17,000. Denmark maintained her position 

 as our principal purveyor of this article with a delivery of 

 1,334,726 cwts. in the twelve months ; France followed with 

 448,128 cwts.; Sweden furnished 299,214 cwts.; Holland, 

 278,631 cwts.; and Russia, about 200,000 cwts. Other 

 European countries competing in this trade in the 

 past year were Norway, Belgium, and Italy. The 

 consignments of Australasian butter amounted to nearly 

 270,875 cwts., of which Victoria sent 169,000 cwts., 

 New Zealand 76,522 cwts., and New South Wales 

 ^3)835 cwts., while the remainder was made up of small 

 consignments from South Australia and Queensland. The 

 trans- Atlantic contributions included 109,000 cwts. from 

 Canada, 1 54,000 cwts. from the United States, and 12,000 cwts. 

 from Argentina. Canada furnished, as has been the case 

 since 1890, the largest proportion of our imports of cheese, the 

 quantity received from the Dominion in 1897 having been 

 1,526,664 cwts. The United States provided us with 631,616 

 cwts. of this product, and Holland was responsible for 

 297,559 cwts. To the latter country we were also indebted 

 for 872,595 cwts. of margarine, out of a total importation of 

 936>543 cwts. The supplies of this article have remained 

 practically stationary for the past three years. The imports 

 of fresh milk and cream, which had formerly been recorded 

 in gallons, were last year entered in weight. The total 

 declared value of the 10,000 cwts. received was 9,848, and 

 although this exceeds the sum at which the previous year s 

 imports were A^alued by ;£4,400, it is less than half the 

 amounts debited to this country in the Trade Accounts for 

 imported fresh milk and cream in 1894 and 1895, which were 

 £21,371 and ^^19,991 respectively. The consignments 

 received in 1897 included supplies from Sweden to the value 

 of £4,i8y ; from the United States, £2,4^^; and from 

 France, ;£2,i89. The importation of milk from France was 

 confined to the last three months of the year. 



