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Show IREUi 15 EXPORTING PV1UCH M PRODUCE Curious Fact Is Pointed Out by the Department of Agriculture. By HUGH CURRAX. Written for the Universal Scivico. DUBLIN, Sept. 'JS. Thoro has ju-t been published the official return of Irish tra-io in exports ant imports for the year 1916. The delay in publication publica-tion is eipla ine-.l by the rei i:ct ion in the staff of the department of agriculture, agri-culture, due to eulUt menu John Hooper, who is t lie official in charge of the star i.-ti-al d-pnrtment, estimates the value of I re'a u i ' imports im-ports during HM3 at il'.O -.'X") an 1 the exports at 1 07,'.V'.', "". Thc-e litres both tbow big i i c re a & c s oer the year 1:15, i l.uoi'.O'.") in imports and fJi'.O'-H'.'-'J'-1 in exports. Mr. Hooper ro.r:;.- out that there increases in-creases are n-t tine to quantities, but to the greatly iucrt ased value due to the war. In fact, if the UMfi figure- were estimate! at 1915 vh!u, imports would have shown a decrease ana exports ex-ports only a per cent increase. Analysing the return? into variou? classes of gfoda imported anil exported. ex-ported. Mr. Hooper notes the curious fact that Ireland, efcentially an agricultural agri-cultural country itself, is shown to be largely dependent on other countries !r inr:n produce, focd aim drir..-stu: drir..-stu: f . In li 16 the value of import e i goods undr this head was i.Vj,o,,i0t0ijO) and that figure showed an iLcreae in liU4 of :o.i'n0.Oi"). Xo doubt the figures for 1017 and when thev are available, will show a rapid and drastic turn the o!hcr wav, for in thee two years there has been a boom in home production of foodttuf f and, owing to scarcity of ships, a big drop in exports of goods produced at home. In 1916 there is shown to be a big export of farm produce, amounting to 5 per cent of the total exports. This indicates the want of co-ordination and the consequent use of tonnage for unnecessary un-necessary purposes for, while exporting 58 per cent of the whole farm produce, Ireland imported 37 per cent of the same kind of commodity. In this re- spect also the returns of 1917 and 191$ will show better management. For this class of export Mr. Hooper's returns reveal the interesting fact that in the supply of farm produce to Great Britain Ireland is second only to the United States. The figures for the latter lat-ter are 133,000,000, while those from Ireland are 62,000,000, Canada coming com-ing next with 45,000,000. |