Three factors have dominated (and to a lesser extent still dominate) the history of trade between New Zealand and Central and South America and the Caribbean. First, the general similarity in national economies; secondly, the relatively underdeveloped nature of the Central and South American and Caribbean economies and hence the generally low industrial activity and consumer spending power; and, finally, the lack of regular and frequent shipping services. New Zealand's trade relations with the following countries are governed by the GATT: Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay. Argentina has acceded provisionally to the GATT. New Zealand and Argentina at present treat each other as “most favoured nations”. Trade relations with British colonies in the area are governed by the terms of the New Zealand – United Kingdom Trade Agreement and, in general, by the GATT.

Exports

New Zealand's exports to Central and South America and the Caribbean have been slow to develop and, even now, the area does not take much of New Zealand's total export. Up to 1920 there were hardly any exports to the area. Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay were regular but small customers, while sporadic shipments were made to various other countries, mainly of apples, sheep, and bunker coal. It is likely that purchases of New Zealand produce by the area were greater than official statistics reveal, for these would not show the extent to which New Zealand produce was re-exported by such entrepôt centres as Britain. This qualification would also apply to some degree today.

The period 1920–42 saw a little more trade with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, the British West Indies, and the Panama Canal Zone. Exports to the first three countries fluctuated considerably with no definite trend. A large shipment of potatoes to Uruguay in 1937 caused exports to rise to £127,000, at that time the highest to any one country in the area. Shipments to the Argentine reached a peak of £74,000 in 1929, but between 1931 and 1935 export values were under £5,000 each year. Major items of export were apples and sheep. During the 1920s exports to the British West Indies and the Panama Canal Zone were negligible, but in the 1930s trade (mainly in butter) improved markedly, particularly to the Zone. Between 1930 and 1942 exports averaged £66,000 a year to the Panama Canal Zone and £40,000 to the British West Indies. Exports to other countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean, except to Chile, were very small and intermittent. During these years Chile was a regular customer, but exports in any one year were always below £20,000. Trade came almost to a standstill during the Second World War, but in 1946 came the resumption, when exports to the British West Indies and Argentine jumped from nil to £43,000 (mainly butter) and £21,000 (apples, sheep) respectively.

The introduction of a direct shipping service to the west coast of South America and the Caribbean in 1958 considerably helped to develop New Zealand's export trade, as can be seen from the following figures: in 1964 exports to the British West Indies were valued at £36 million; to Peru, at £538,000; Panama and the Canal Zone, £285,000; Netherlands Antilles, £252,000; and Mexico, £279,000. Meat and dairy products are the major items, although Mexico has been buying wool. Apart from the odd shipment (mainly sheep), exports to the east coast of South America have fallen away after the war. This development is in part a reflection of the growth of the agricultural economies in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

Imports

Up to and including 1919, New Zealand's import statistics were recorded on the basis of country of shipment (and not on country of origin, which has since been the case). As a result, the extent of New Zealand's actual purchases from countries in the Central and South American and Caribbean area is obscure. Available statistics reveal that imports from the area up to 1919, expressed as a percentage of total imports, were very small. Between 1900 and 1919 the British West Indies was a consistently small supplier, the peak year being 1919, when imports (mainly cocoa beans and rum) were worth £9,000. Between 1910 and 1919 there was also a small and regular import trade with Chile (nitrate of soda) and Cuba (cigars). The value of imports from each of these countries was under £10,000 in every year. Negligible and spasmodic shipments were received from some other countries in the area. This lack of trade was due mainly to New Zealand's major demand for manufactured goods, which the underdeveloped economies in the area could not supply. In the next 20 years imports from a number of countries fluctuated considerably, with no clear-cut trends. The British West Indies continued to export cocoa beans and rum, together with some asphalt and bitumen. In the 1930s shipment of these items declined, to be replaced by fruit. Imports from this source averaged £26,000 in 1920–29 (with swings from ££15,000 in 1925 to 36,000 in 1929) and £42,000 in 1930–39 (with swings from 14,000 in 1933 to 67,000 in 1930).

In 1926 Cuba began exporting large amounts of sugar to New Zealand (£383,000 in 1926, 330,000 in 1927). Shipments declined heavily in 1931–35, recovered somewhat in 1936 (£189,000), but then petered out. Peru (in 1924, 1927–28, 1930, and 1939) and the Dominican Republic (in 1939) also supplied large amounts of sugar to New Zealand. Between 1929 and 1939 Mexico was a frequent supplier of asphalt and bitumen, the peak coming in 1928, when imports were valued at £71,000. In the same period Chile had a small trade in nitrate of soda, and Brazil in shipped cocoa beans, edible nuts, and precious stones. During the war (1940–46) imports from the British West Indies, Brazil, the Argentine, and Chile remained few and fluctuating. In 1943 manure replaced nitrate of soda as the major import from Chile. Imports from Peru, however, expanded in a spectacular fashion. This time it was oil, not sugar. Between 1942 and 1946 New Zealand's purchases of oil averaged £1,043,000 a year.

Since the war New Zealand has imported much more from the area, particularly minerals and oils. The Netherlands Antilles, Venezuela, Peru, and the British West Indies have become important suppliers of motor spirits and oil to New Zealand. Other imports are sodium nitrate from Chile, sulphur from Mexico, nuts and wax from Brazil, and fruit and rum from the British West Indies. As the economies of New Zealand and the countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean develop, New Zealand's imports from the area should continue to increase.

by John Bernard Prendergast, M.COM., Director, Overseas Trade Division, Department of Industries and Commerce, Wellington.

From the 1840s to the early 1870s New Zealand traded mainly with Australia. With the growth of regular direct shipping services in the 1870s Britain became, and has remained, New Zealand's best customer and the main source of imports.

Exports

Exports to Britain from the earliest period have been mainly primary products. Wool accounted for 60 per cent of total annual exports in the later 1870s, with gold, Phormium tenax (flax), and grain among the other important items. But it was not until the introduction of refrigeration in the 1880s that the familiar pattern of New Zealand exports of butter, cheese, frozen meat, and wool was established. In 1885 exports of butter and cheese were only 273 cwt and 272 cwt respectively; by 1892 they had risen to 41,509 cwt and 30,000 cwt. Gold and Phormium were beginning to decrease in importance in a growing export trade which reflected an increasingly pastoral character of production within New Zealand. In 1924 butter, cheese, meat, and wool, together, accounted for £38,000,000 out of total shipments of £42,000,000. From 1875 to 1914 the value of New Zealand exports to Britain quickly increased; 80 per cent of the country's total exports went to Britain. Throughout the 1920s, however, the value of exports to Britain fluctuated and the percentage of exports absorbed by the United Kingdom showed a decline. The depression caused a fall in world prices for pastoral products, reflected by a drop in the value of exports to Britain during 1929–32. Britain's share rose to 88 per cent of New Zealand's total exports in 1932.

Immediately after the Ottawa Agreement of 1932 the value of exports to Britain began to rise again; by 1937 it reached £50,000,000, an increase of about £20,000 on the value for 1931. Just before the Second World War butter, frozen meat, wool, cheese, gold, hides and skins, tallow, apples, dried milk, and sausage casings were the main goods exported. The “big four” (butter, cheese, wool, and meat) had reached proportions in terms of quantity closely approximating those of today. During the Second World War the value of exports fluctuated. Trade was then based on bulk purchase of primary produce. Bulk purchase of wool and sheepskins was given up when the war ended; but for dairy produce and meat it continued until 1955.

Since the war the export trade with Britain has increased in value (from £98 million in 1947 to £165 million in 1959), but has decreased as a proportion of New Zealand's total exports, partly because of greater British home agricultural production and partly because of greater competition on the British market. The prospect of Britain's association with an increasingly protectionist Europe has made New Zealand not only explore other markets for its primary produce but also try to sell a more diverse range of goods to Britain. It is apparent, however, that in the absence of alternative markets of equivalent size New Zealand must always regard Britain as its main export market. Britain has also served as an entrepôt to distribute New Zealand goods (mainly wool) to Western Europe and Africa. In some years the value of such re-exported goods has exceeded £5 million.

Imports from Britain

When direct shipping services started in the 1870s Britain replaced Australia as the main source of New Zealand imports. In contrast with exports, the range of imports from Britain has been wide: apparel, textiles, metals, machinery, vehicles, oils, waxes, newsprint, and luxury goods. In the 1880s and the 1890s New Zealand imported from Britain about 60–70 per cent by value of its total imports. But by 1900 other countries, especially Canada and the United States, had begun to increase their share at Britain's expense, with the result that in 1929 Britain's share dropped to 47 per cent (£22 million out of a total value of £48 million). After the First World War the range of products available to importing countries became wider – especially those of the motor, artificial silk, cinema, and radio industries; and the United States in particular competed strongly with Britain to supply these products to New Zealand. During the 1930s the United Kingdom regained its former strong position, as trade with the United States declined after the Ottawa Agreement of 1932, with its system of preferential tariffs. At the same time British manufacturers became more vigorous in meeting foreign competition.

A Declining Market for Britain

In the Second World War the value of imports from Britain declined steadily (as did total imports) until 1942. In 1943, however, the value of imports from all sources rose, especially those from the United States, on account of lend-lease goods. The British share that year dropped to 34 per cent. After the war Britain once again became New Zealand's main source of supply, helped to some extent by post-war dollar restrictions. Thus imports from Britain, which were only £31,061,188 in 1945, rose to £87,583,194 by 1950.

The increase in multilateral trading which was a feature of the development of international trade in the 1950's resulted in a decline in the British share of total New Zealand imports. Whereas in 1954 the British share was 56·63 per cent, it had declined by 1960 to 43·52 per cent and in 1964 had fallen further to 37·8 per cent. Despite Britain's diminishing share of New Zealand's import requirements, the value of goods imported from Britain in 1964 was nearly £120 million, approximately twice the value of imports from the next largest supplier to the New Zealand market.

by John Bernard Prendergast, M.COM., Director, Overseas Trade Division, Department of Industries and Commerce, Wellington.

New Zealand and Australia have had political, social, and trading links since the beginnings of European exploration and colonisation in the South Pacific. In the earliest years of organised settlement New Zealand came under the administrative control of the older established colony of New South Wales; and the settlers in both lands had a common national origin and shared a common feeling of isolation. The first Europeans to use these islands – sealers, whalers, and traders in flax and timber – worked mainly from Sydney as an operational base. But in September 1833 Governor Darling could report from Sydney: “It appears that many of the English whalers which do not touch here go to New Zealand for refreshments and to refit, and that American vessels frequent that place in numbers, where they are free from restraint, and obtain the supplies which they require at the expense of a few muskets and a little ammunition”. With the same report, however, Governor Darling enclosed “An Account Showing the Trade Between this Port and New Zealand” for the period 1 January to 14 August 1830. Listed imports from New Zealand included 500 tons of flax, 69,136 lb of salt provisions, 3 cwt of lard, 35,200 ft of pine boards and spars, 36 tons of potatoes, 40 bushels of maize, 4,091 seal skins, 500 gallons of whale oil, and 75 pigs. Exports to New Zealand for the same period included 203 cwt of bread, 7,000 bricks, 730 gallons of beer, 87,992 lb of flour, two horned cattle, and – the sinister side – 50 cutlasses, 11,052 lb of gunpowder, and 2,120 muskets. This exchange of partially processed natural raw materials for, in the main, manufactured goods was to be the standard pattern of trade between New South Wales and New Zealand for several decades. Though the fur seal had been hunted almost to extinction in New Zealand by the 1830s, the numbers of visiting whaling vessels reached perhaps their peak in that decade and had built up a trade in pork and potatoes for ships' stores. A more substantial trade developed in the oil from the shore-based stations which sprang up along the east coasts of both the North and South Islands and along the shores of Cook and Foveaux Straits. Much of this oil was shipped across the Tasman.

This pattern of trade did not change much after New Zealand became a Crown Colony in 1840. Copper ore from the mines established on Great Barrier by the Abercrombie brothers (who also had business ventures in Tasmania and Sydney) was exported in the 1840s. For a while in the 1850s New Zealand shipped increased quantities of wheat, potatoes, and other produce to Australia to meet the sudden rise in population after the gold rushes. In any case the outbreak of the Maori Wars decreased food production in New Zealand. By this time, too, the whale fisheries had begun to decline as had the seal-skin hunting some 30 years earlier. Sawn timber in the place of spars, tallow from boiling-down works, wool, bullion, and later, wheat, barley, and oats became the main exports. Although immigrant vessels kept New Zealand in communication with England, Australia still received most of the exports – some 70 per cent in 1865. The large immigration of the 1870s may have helped to reduce this figure to about 44 per cent by 1871, but the first shipment of refrigerated meat from New Zealand to Britain in 1882 began a change in the traditional pattern of exports. Thereafter the proportion of New Zealand goods shipped to Australia dwindled, while exports to Britain increased with the rapid extension of New Zealand's grasslands under the stimulus which refrigeration provided. By 1952, 70 years after the first refrigerated shipment to Britain, the value of New Zealand exports to Australia had fallen as low as 1·6 per cent of the total exports.

Though Britain became the main market, New Zealand still traded with Australia. Until the 1930s both Australia and New Zealand had sea transport, which was more effective than internal transport systems, and freights across the Tasman were in many cases competitive with inland transport rates. Under these circumstances New Zealand was able to service markets in, for example, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide as effectively as those centres could service each other. Much of the trade across the Tasman was in such goods as agricultural implements and other manufactures, horses, grain, and bullion. For many years, from the 1870s onward, the trade with Australia had no fixed pattern of commodities beyond this, although by the 1930s New Zealand was no longer exporting much timber and Australia had become an important source of iron, steel, and hardwoods.

Besides being a low point in the history of exports to Australia, the year 1952 was also something of a turning point. New Zealand's native forests had shrunk steadily as bush land was opened up for settlement, a shrinking which quickened in the eighties and had become more pronounced in later decades.

Export of Forest Products to Australia

*For six months – January-June inclusive.

†For year ended 30 June.

By 1940 the once great volume of timber exports was a mere trickle. The plantations of “exotic” trees (mainly pines) established mainly during the 1920s had by the end of the Second World War begun to yield forest products in increasing quantities. In the 1950s more and more timber was being shipped to Australia, principally exotic pine and Douglas fir softwoods. Wood pulp and, later, newsprint were to follow. Forest products at the present time form most of New Zealand's exports to Australia.

New Trends

Before the First World War New Zealand's trade with Australia was in balance. After the war the pattern of trade changed, with exports to Australia decreasing (as a proportion of total exports) while imports increased. Wheat (once an export to Australia) sugar, hardwoods, and iron and steel became regular imports from that country. Moreover, since the end of the Second World War New Zealand has been importing increasing quantities of petroleum products, chemicals, and manufactured goods. This development has been hastened by the establishment in Australia of subsidiaries of overseas organisations which previously supplied New Zealand directly with goods now being made in and supplied from Australia.

It is curious, too, that despite the close links mentioned above there has, until recently, been only a limited formal cooperation on trade matters between the two countries. In 1895 the Customs Duties Reciprocity Act was passed and this not only ratified an agreement made with South Australia but gave powers for making trade agreements with the other Australian States. But it was not until 1906, by which time the Australian States had become a Commonwealth, that attempts were made to devise a preferential tariff between Australia and New Zealand. In this case the Commonwealth Parliament accepted the proposals, but New Zealand did not, claiming that the balance of advantage was weighted too heavily in Australia's favour. In 1922 an agreement was finally reached under which each country exchanged preferences on a limited range of goods. This agreement remained in force until 1933, when the Australian – New Zealand Trade Agreement was negotiated which provided for each partner to give to the other the benefits of its British preferential tariff, except for special rates for some goods. Since the agreement was made the conditions affecting the overseas trade of each have changed markedly. As a result, in recent years the two countries have held trade discussions during which their mutual problems have been examined with a view to achieving improved trading conditions.

New Zealand–Australia Free Trade Agreement

On 31 August 1965 the New Zealand – Australia Free Trade Agreement was signed. This had its origins in the work of the Australia – New Zealand Consultative Committee on Trade which was established in 1960. The Consultative Committee examined the trade relations between the two countries and in particular considered proposals which would increase trade between the two countries in forest products. Finally in April 1963 the Trade Ministers of the two countries established a Joint Standing Committee of officials with the following terms of reference:

“To review and study the trade between the two countries with a view to submitting, as soon as practicable, proposals for consideration by Governments for a free trade area in forest products and other items suitable for inclusion in a free trade arrangement either from the outset or subsequently.”

The Joint Standing Committee reported to the two Governments in April 1964 and between that time and the signing of the Agreement, the report was considered by both countries and negotiations on the final form of the Agreement entered into.

The New Zealand – Australia Free Trade Agreement incorporates the Australia – New Zealand Trade Agreement of 1933 which provides for the elimination of import duties on those goods included in Schedule A to the Agreement. Duties of 10 per cent ad valorem or more are to be phased out in five equal steps over an eight-year period. For duties of 10 per cent or less the phasing out will be over a shorter period. The various articles of the Agreement and the exchanges of letters attached to it are contained in parliamentary paper A. 17 of 31 August 1965. The articles cover such matters as quantitative import restrictions, development of industry, dumped and subsidised imports, and they also provide for consultation and review. The Agreement will remain in force for an initial period of 10 years and thereafter it shall continue in force unless terminated following 180 days' notice by either party. Further, it contains provision for the addition of goods to Schedule A, following annual consultations between the two Governments.

by John Bernard Prendergast, M.COM., Director, Overseas Trade Division, Department of Industries and Commerce, Wellington.

Beginnings

Overseas trade has always occupied a central position in the development of New Zealand. Indeed, settlement was incidental to trade, the first European settlers being traders who came to exploit the country's natural resources. This exploitation, which was often an uncontrolled plunder of nature, continued to be a substantial factor in New Zealand's trade until well into the nineteenth century.

As early as 1792, only 23 years after the first visit of Cook, a small band of sealers settled in Dusky Sound for nearly a year. Their interest was in sealskins, but they also built a small vessel from New Zealand timber, though the real beginning of commercial trade in kauri timber came in 1794, when the Fancy took a shipload from the Thames. Whaling also, like sealing and timber cutting, quickly became established as an export industry, and the export value of the native flax (Phormium tenax) was soon recognised; Whaling). The early exports were therefore sealskins, seal and whale oil, timber, and flax, with tattooed Maori heads a gruesome additional item. Ruthless exploitation and wanton slaughter had, by about 1820, largely destroyed the basis of the seal trade, and whaling was not very important after about 1860. Timber and flax, however, continued as significant export items until the First World War. Imports in this early period were goods required mainly for barter with the Maoris – iron tools, muskets, and gunpowder – or for use by the traders themselves – clothing, flour, and spirits.

Reliable and complete statistics of trade are not available until 1853, when the Crown Colony period had ended. According to A. S. Thomson's The Story of New Zealand, published in London in 1859, exports (to New South Wales) increased from £30,000 in 1826 to £135,486 in 1829, with a sharp fall to £37,246 by 1842; imports (also from New South Wales) were stated at £1,735 (1826), £12,692 (1829), and £131,784 (1842). In 1853 the official statistics, compiled for the first time for New Zealand as a whole, show exports valued at £303,000, with imports at £598,000.

The period up to 1853 divides itself naturally into two parts, the dividing line being the beginning of organised settlement in 1840. The early years before 1840 have little importance for the economic historian, the trade in whale oil, sealskins, timber, and flax contributing only negatively to future economic development of the colony. More significant was the development, especially in the 1830s, of shore whaling stations, usually with a farm for self-sufficiency in food. Such farms, and the similar establishments attached to mission settlements, foreshadow the change from an economy based on extractive industries to one based on farming. The beginning of systematic colonisation in 1840 marked the real start of the change, though small quantities of wool had been exported to Sydney and Hobart during the 1830s.

Up to about 1850 the new colonists were substantially occupied in producing food for survival. Moreover, there was no ready means of exporting such farm products as could be produced under the comparatively “intensive” Wakefield type of land settlement. The settlers, however, were soon pushing out from the Company settlements, particularly to the Wairarapa and Canterbury Plains, which were suitable for sheep. By 1853 wool made up 22 per cent of the value of exports, second only to timber (31 per cent). The Australian gold rushes were then at their height and the infant New Zealand farming industry found there a ready market for such basic foodstuffs as potatoes (value in 1853, £30,000, or 10 per cent of total exports), grain (£19,000, or 6 per cent), and butter and cheese (£12,000, or 4 per cent). Other major exports of 1853 were kauri gum (16,000, or 5 per cent) and whale oil (£22,000, or 7 per cent), a survival from the pre-settlement days. The trend continued, and by 1855 wool and potatoes each comprised 25 per cent of total exports, with grain accounting for 22 per cent. Timber had dropped to 2 per cent and thereafter never recovered its earlier importance. By 1860 wool made up 76 per cent of New Zealand's exports.

The Gold-rush Period

The pastoral age which had begun was overshadowed for a period by the discovery of gold in New Zealand. The export of wool continued to increase, but was from 1861 to 1871 eclipsed by gold which, from 3 per cent of total exports in 1860, rose to 55 per cent in 1861 and to a peak of 70 per cent in 1863. In only one year of the 11 did gold supply less than half of total exports, and throughout the period gold and wool together accounted for between 82 per cent and 94 per cent of all exports. In 1861 exports of wool were valued at £524,000, those of gold at £753,000, and in 1871 wool reached £1,606,000, compared with £2,788,000 for gold (but these figures were almost exactly reversed within a year). From 1871 the production and export of gold decreased gradually, although until 1911 gold always accounted for more than 10 per cent of total exports. Indeed, for about 10 years after 1900 there was a revival in the importance of gold exports, with the development of deep-level quartz mining in the North and dredging in the South.

The Pastoral Age – Wool

Production and trade in wool increased steadily from the time of its first appearance in the trade statistics. In 1853, 1·1 million pounds of wool, valued at £67,000 were exported; in 1863, 12·6 million pounds; and in 1873, 41·5 million pounds. Exports climbed to 100 million pounds in 1889, 200 million in 1910, 300 million in 1936, 400 million in 1948, and 500 million in 1959, with a record 564 million pounds in 1963. From 1872 onwards wool has remained the leading single export item in terms of value, though in 1918 and from 1921 to 1949 dairy products as a group were greater exchange earners than wool.

In the 1870s wool accounted for over half the value of New Zealand's export trade; from 1880 to 1898 its share was from 40 per cent to 50 per cent; and from 1899 onwards wool has consistently earned about one-third of New Zealand's export receipts. Wool has indeed been New Zealand's golden fleece.

Refrigeration – the New Export Pattern

The Australian gold rushes encouraged crop farming, since grain and potatoes were needed by the miners. A small dairying industry also exported a little butter and cheese to Australia, but dairying, like the meat industry, had to await the coming of refrigeration before any substantial export trade could develop. The export trade in grain and potatoes was in the sixties almost extinguished by local demand brought about by the New Zealand gold rushes, though grain was again an important export for a few years in the eighties until the greater profit in frozen meat and dairying diverted wheat lands to other uses. Real and lasting diversification of New Zealand farm production was made possible by the introduction of refrigerated transport in 1882. The success of refrigeration meant that New Zealand was no longer restricted to Australia as a market for butter and cheese; it meant, too, that meat could be exported as well as sold to the local butcher. The sheep was useful both for its meat and for its wool, skin, and tallow. The sale of fat lambs made a valuable addition to the wool cheque and the extra income enabled farmers to improve both their land and their flocks. Sheep farmers were quick to learn the lesson and pay attention to breeding for meat as well as wool. The timing of the introduction of refrigeration was also important. It came at about the middle of the “Long Depression” (1870–95) when the price of wool, already at a low level, was still falling. The new export commodities were therefore doubly attractive to producers.

Given the relatively large sheep population and the relative speed of increasing lamb production compared with the inherent rigidity of dairy production, it is not surprising that exports of frozen meat increased more rapidly than those of butter and cheese. By 1884, that is, in two years from the inauguration of the trade, frozen meat reached 5 per cent of the value of total exports; by 1890, 11 per cent; and by 1902, 20 per cent. From about 1930 frozen meat has usually provided about 25 per cent of New Zealand's total export earnings, and in recent years meat, including canned meat, has displaced dairy products as the second New Zealand export, the value in 1964 being £106 million. Frozen lamb and mutton now make up over 60 per cent of the value of meat exports, with frozen and chilled beef and veal supplying about 30 per cent. The early trade after 1882 was almost entirely in sheep meat. Beef and veal became significant as exports about 1912 and increased sharply during the First World War to about 6 per cent of all exports – not greatly below the present 8 per cent.

The great expansion of exports of dairy products came later. It was encouraged not only by the use of refrigerated transport, but by two other technical advances: the separation of cream by centrifugal force from about 1880, and the Babcock test for determining the cream content of milk. These made possible the centralised factory production of butter. Butter reached 5 per cent by value of total exports in 1899, but cheese did not until 1909. By 1912 butter comprised 10 per cent of all exports, and cheese 8 per cent. During the First World War, and in 1919 and 1920, the value of cheese exports exceeded those of butter, preference being given to cheese under the Imperial Government Requisition Scheme (mainly because of greater ease of transport). Since 1920 exports of butter have increased about tenfold in quantity, but those of cheese are now only about 50 per cent above the 1920 level. Butter now accounts for about 15 per cent by value of total exports, cheese for about 5 per cent, and other dairy products for about 4 per cent, so that dairy products as a group about equal frozen meat in importance. During the Second World War cheese exports were once more increased at the request of the British Government.

The great increase in dairy farming after about 1895, and especially after 1900, encouraged by rising prices, had special significance for New Zealand's economic development. It not only broadened the range of farm production but also made more intensive farming a fact. The more efficient use of the land increased productivity quite sharply.

A significant fact is that the “diversification” was merely a change in the products of grasslands farming. Far from lessening the dependence on pastoral farming, the changes tied New Zealand's export trade, and hence prosperity, even more tightly to the exploitation of the country's grasslands. Instead of converting grass into wool, New Zealand farmers henceforth were to turn that grass into wool, meat, and skins through the grazing of sheep, and into butter, cheese, meat, and hides through grazing cows or cattle.

The changing pattern of New Zealand's exports from 1853 until 1964 is clear from table I.

By 1860 pastoral farming had become dominant, supplying nearly 80 per cent of total exports. In the 1860s and 1870s this dominance was masked by the gold-rush period and, from 1880 to about 1910, by the combined effect of gold mining and a renaissance of agricultural cropping and forestry. From 1913 onwards pastoral farming has accounted for 80 per cent of total exports – since 1920, for more than 90 per cent in almost every year. Table II gives detailed values from 1853 to 1964 of the four major exports; wool, frozen and chilled meat, butter, and cheese, and also shows percentage shares of total exports for these products.

Minor Exports

The pattern of minor exports has changed with that of the “big four”. This is because the more important of the present-day minor exports are by-products of the meat and dairying industries. Among these by-products the most important are hides and skins valued at over £15 million in 1964 and representing 4 per cent by value of total exports; others are tallow and sausage casings, valued in 1964 at about £9 million, or 2 per cent of total exports. The meat byproducts first appear in the export statistics for 1863, the value of £12,000 representing tallow and sheep skins. The trade in these products increased steadily with the wool trade and, later, with the meat-export trade. Sausage casings were, relatively, a latecomer, the export value in 1914 being £139,000, or about 05 per cent of total exports, compared with nearly £6 million, or 15 per cent, in 1964.

Minor dairy products, other than butter and cheese, have also increased in importance. In 1964 exports of these products, which include casein, dried milk, condensed milk, and lactose, were valued at nearly £16 million, 4 per cent of total exports. Casein exports have grown significantly in recent years, reaching nearly 50,000 tons in 1964 compared with only 8,000 tons 10 years earlier. New Zealand is now the world's largest exporter of casein.

Forestry products, which substantially disappeared from the export statistics after 1930, reappeared in the early 1950s. Exports in 1964 were valued at over £11 million, nearly 3 per cent of total exports. The reappearance of forest products as an export item was mainly the result of the maturing of exotic softwood forests which had been planted from about 1925 onwards. From these were exported in 1964 sawn timber and logs to the value of over £25 million; wood pulp, nearly 3 million; and newsprint, nearly £6 million. It is worth noting that timber was the only forest product exported before the Second World War; now the processed products, wood pulp, and newsprint are more important than timber.

Apart from the major livestock products, exports of farm products are not high, “agricultural” crop products in 1964 contributing £72 million, or only 1·8 per cent of the total exports. The leading item in the group is apples and pears, valued at about £3 million; followed by grass and clover seeds (£12 million), and seed peas (£05 million). Other items include canned and frozen vegetables and food peas.

The fishing industry is also a source of exports, valued in 1964 at £2 million, about 05 per cent of total exports.

Former important items which have virtually disappeared from the export scene include kauri gum, flax, rabbitskins, and coal. From 1853 until about 1900 kauri gum, which is peculiar to New Zealand, normally accounted for up to 5 per cent of total exports, but the trade fell off gradually with the substantial exhaustion of the supplies. Flax, or Phormium tenax, which was among the first exports, has varied greatly in importance At its peak in 1905 flax comprised 5 per cent of total exports. Rabbitskins are now a prohibited export as part of the campaign to overcome the rabbit scourge, while coal was never able to supply more than about 1 per cent of total exports.

The Pattern of Imports

It is difficult to summarise imports to show significant trends in the values of important groups. In contrast with the export trade, imports include a very wide range of commodities; moreover from time to time the method of classification has been changed by the Customs Department to bring it into line with modern usage. Long-term comparisons of the values of major groups of imports are therefore not completely valid.

Imports before organised settlement began in 1840 consisted mainly of goods for bartering with the Maoris, or for meeting the simple needs of the small number of European settlers. The major item was muskets, which were keenly sought after by the warlike Maori, and there were also substantial imports of gunpowder, iron tools, hardware, flour and other foodstuffs, spirits, and clothing.

Permanent settlement in 1840 called for continuing and increasing imports of clothing, metals and manufactures to sustain and provide for the development of the infant colonies. From the earliest days of organised settlement the general nature of imports changed relatively little up to the First World War, the main traditional groups being metals and machinery, textiles and clothing, sugar, beverages and food, paper and stationery. Newer groups are fuels, motor vehicles, and chemicals.

Changes in the nature of New Zealand's imports are apparent from tables III and IV, though the classifications are not strictly comparable.

More interesting is the classification of imports according to end use. The percentage figures in table V show the trend of imports (from 1935 onwards) towards producers' and, particularly, manufacturers' equipment and materials. This, of course, reflects New Zealand's economic development. The pattern was considerably distorted by the Second World War.

Total Trade

The sharp upward trend in the value of total trade and of total imports and exports, and the similar trend in the value of total trade per head of population, are shown in the diagrams (pp. 425–7). It is clear from the diagrams that difficult marketing conditions in the last two years, as in 1930 and during the “Long Depression” of 1870–95, have, at least temporarily, halted this trend. The diagrams illustrate the direction of New Zealand's trade in 1964 and the changes in the direction of its external trade since 1860.

Direction of New Zealand's Trade

The obvious feature, both of the import and of the export trade of New Zealand, is the overwhelming importance of Britain and, to a less extent, other Commonwealth countries in New Zealand's external trade. Britain's importance, while still great, has decreased since 1950. In 1964 Britain supplied 38 per cent of all New Zealand's imports and bought nearly 50 per cent of its exports. Other Commonwealth countries have held their relative position well and Australia, since 1950, has increased its share of New Zealand's imports from 12 per cent to 20 per cent. Increased trade, export and import, with the United States, Continental Europe, and, to a lesser but increasing extent, Japan has filled the gap resulting from Britain's decreased share of New Zealand's trade. Tables VI and VII illustrate the changes in the direction of New Zealand's external trade since 1860.

Summary

It is apparent that the main features of New Zealand's external trade have persisted almost from the beginning of organised settlement. In 1962, as in 1862, New Zealand exported primary products and imported manufactured or processed goods, and over the whole period there has been a very great dependence on one country, Britain. The main changes have been an increasing reliance on the export of the products of grasslands farming, replacing the earlier extractive industries, and, recently, a moderate reduction of the degree of dependence on Britain as a market and source of imports.

by R.W.T.

The growth of New Zealand towns and cities may not have been spectacular: perhaps it merely provides a local illustration of changes occurring elsewhere in the world, but it is a good example. The major urban centres were soundly located; they were reasonably planned and they have avoided the slums and other evils of intense urbanisation. They have passed their adolescence and are entering the productive field aimed at increasing the country's prosperity. Their future development offers a challenge to maintain the balance between materialism and amenity; to become industrial communities without sacrificing the natural beauty so richly bestowed by nature on this pleasant land.

by Cyril Roy Knight, M.A., BARCH. (LIVERPOOL), F.R.I.B.A., F.R.S.A., F.N.Z.I.A., Professor Emeritus, University of Auckland.

• Population, Migration, and Building Statistics 1959–60
• Early History of New Zealand, ed. Leys, T. H. (1890)
• New Zealand Journey, The Royal Visit 1953–54
• The History of Otago McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• The Story of Canterbury, Reed, A. H. (1949)
• A History of New Zealand, Sinclair, K. (1959).

The major work of the urban community is performed in buildings; indeed, its efficiency is largely governed by their architectural merit. This fact was quickly recognised by the primary producers who, while content to live in modest, or in some cases, primitive houses, insisted upon the construction of butter factories, wool stores, and meat-processing buildings of great efficiency. Consequently some architects have specialised in this work and designed buildings of international significance.

The early buildings of the urban community were primitive and, apart from some places of worship and the occasional civic structure, were built mainly of timber. During the seventies and eighties of last century, and again in the early part of the present one, many substantial buildings were erected to service the growing functional importance of the urban areas. These, for the most part, were “prestige buildings” for banks, insurance offices, and public buildings of various kinds. The designs followed the prevailing fashion of the post renaissance; a period of revivals, Greek, Roman, or Gothic. Every town and city have examples, severe, dignified, and sedate. They were, perhaps, expressive of prosperity, but it cannot be said they made any significant contribution to architectural development.

Houses in the first phase were simpler, functional, primitive but honest; later they adopted the mannerisms of the Victorian period but with certain characteristics of their own, expressed in gables and verandas by carved and decorated finials, barge-boards, and balustrades of an infinite variety in design. Later, the Revivalist cult was seen in designs based upon Georgian, Spanish Mission, and other styles adapted for local use from overseas prototypes. Many were dignified and refined and thus expressive of cultural growth.

The most recent development in the urban scene is the merging of industry and manufacture into the functions of the city. This, together with the freedom of architecture from stylistic fashions, has given impetus to the design of buildings based upon their efficiency of function. It has produced many fine industrial groups streamlined to efficient processing combined with a pleasing form and landscaping so necessary for the contentment and retention of staff. Yet, in this formative period, there are still too many industries struggling to reach efficiency in altered or adapted buildings of ancient lineage.

The change in the approach to design is also seen in the latest buildings for other urban uses. Commercial and administrative buildings of many types are planned about the needs of space and of light and air. Aided by the technological advances made in building materials and methods of construction, they have clean and simple lines and distinctive architectural form. In houses, emphasis has been placed upon efficient plan arrangements, the opening up of the house to sunlight and view, and the adaptation of the building to its site and environment. It would seem that architecture is keeping pace with the changing needs of the growing urban areas by providing the building requirements for their orderly development.

Most of the urban areas were preplanned; that is to say, a development plan was prepared before settlement took place. In this respect they differed from many English towns which grew in a haphazard fashion from small hamlets at main road intersections or on the banks of rivers. In New Zealand the land was first purchased from the Maoris by the Crown or the settlement companies; an urban area was chosen and the site surveyed and sold to prospective settlers, in many cases without inspection. The design pattern followed well established town-planning ideas of the period. In essence it was a rectilineal pattern of streets relieved by some form of central open space. It is often called Roman planning because the Roman military towns were designed in the same way, the central square being used for an assembly ground or market square. Later, the public buildings were built adjacent to the central square which became known as “Civic Square”. The method was used freely in America – Philadelphia is an excellent example – and many Australian cities, such as Melbourne, were planned on the same principle. It had its limitations; it was unsuitable for hilly country and was very monotonous when extended for a large population. It proved, too, unsuitable for modern motor transportation, but big cities and rapid transport were not envisaged in the early Victorian age. Christchurch, with its central square and surrounding rectangular pattern of streets, is the best example in New Zealand. The central square idea had variations; in Dunedin it was an octagon which is still a central feature of the city. In Auckland, Victoria Street was the planned main street connecting a “Circus” at the site of Albert Park with a square called “Hobson Square” adjacent to St. Matthew's Church. This was never built because the plan was misapplied to irregular country and the city logically developed along Queen Street up the valley connecting the waterfront with the hinterland. Wellington, after the first settler landing at Petone (Britannia) was originally planned on the Te Aro flat area, where the rectangular plan may still be seen, the Basin Reserve occupying a space that could have been meant for the market square. In smaller towns further variations may be seen. It was quite common to widen the main street at the shopping site and plant a central rectangular space with trees or a garden. This is often used today for car parking. Cambridge, Pahiatua, and Gore are examples, Palmerston North, however, went back to the square, in this case a very large one, now developed as a city park.

Towns of later foundation were not so generous in the use of space; they appear to have developed outwards from a main street in a somewhat haphazard fashion, probably because the land was in private ownership and therefore subdivided piecemeal; they are thus featureless and often very dull.

The design pattern described was quite unsuitable for hilly land and when the comparatively level land was limited, as in Wellington and Dunedin, it proved insufficient for expansion. Wellington progressed along Lambton Quay and finally to the Hutt Valley, leaving the hills for development as residential areas. The resulting building sites are unique and perhaps unrivalled in their expansive views, but it has proved a costly procedure. Dunedin had similar limitations. In both cases the use of reclaimed land has been freely used for the extension of business and industry. Auckland city moved up the Queen Street valley and spread, tee-shaped, along the ridge called Karangahape Road, with a further extension to Symonds Street. Thus the merit of the early preplanning was to a certain degree restricted by the lack of foresight for the future requirements of traffic and for expansion.

When the preplanned spaces of the “urban areas” had been fully utilised, the adjoining lands were privately owned; hence further subdivision was a matter for the individual owners. This was controlled by regulations as to the size of lots, frontage, and so forth. It therefore lacked the coordination of the original preplanned town and was in a measure haphazard development. Consequently, in recent years, town-planning legislation was enacted to control development in a logical predetermined manner. The full effect of this policy is a matter for the future, but it recognises the wisdom of predetermined development in the interests of efficiency and amenity.

Notwithstanding the defects of these early plans, the urban areas acquired many attractive and useful features as a result. Reference has been made to the squares and gardens which still remain salient points of interest. In addition, parks and recreation grounds were provided in the plans – for instance, the town belt of Dunedin – and these together with generous gifts from citizens constitute the major open spaces in the urban communities. These areas, so essential for health and amenity, would be difficult and costly to acquire under the later haphazard methods of subdivision. Many of them today occupy very valuable central land, but few citizens would permit them to be exploited for material gain.

At first glance New Zealand towns and cities appear typically British in character, but lacking the intrinsic charm which the latter have gained through the centuries. Superficially, this is a correct impression; indeed, it would be exPected when it is remembered that over 90 per cent of the population of New Zealand is of British origin and that development over a century and a quarter is inadequate, historically, to produce markedly national characteristics in the absence of compelling geographical or climatic reasons for them. The impression, too, is given colour by the nature of the country's treatment – its green fields, hedgerows or stone divisions, and even the names bestowed upon the towns such as Cambridge, Christchurch, Dunedin, and New Plymouth. Dunedin was founded by members of the Scottish Free Kirk, Christchurch as an Anglican community, and New Plymouth's first settlers came from Plymouth. All these factors tend to create the impression of a Britain in the Southern Seas. It is, however, a superficial impression because towns and cities are built to serve specific needs. The primitive requirements of the early settlements were very different from the traditional cities of the Old Country and in the course of time the way of life in New Zealand has been expressed in the character and form of all its towns and cities.

A feature of the urban areas is their low density in terms of land use. Seen from the air the cities give a false impression of size owing to their extensive land coverage. The four main centres have overall densities of between three and four people per acre and the smaller cities and larger towns have less than two persons per acre. This characteristic had its origin in the size of the urban lots sold to the first settlers. It persisted through the years by a standard minimum requirement of a quarter acre for residential subdivisions. This large unit may have been due to the common use of inflammable timber for buildings and a fixed determination to prevent in this new land the overcrowded conditions of many cities in Britain, a condition which influenced many early settlers to migrate.

Now that the cities have increased in size to metropolitan status, this policy is the subject of criticism. The fertile lands available for rural use are limited and the “urban sprawl”, as it is called, is extravagant not only because of the lands occupied but also due to the cost of civic services, water, power, drainage, and transportation. This policy has also produced a tiresome appearance of long monotonous streets lined with villa-like houses on uniform lots. Recent town planning policy has therefore been directed towards increasing the density by reducing the minimum size of residential lots and providing the legal means of consolidating existing subdivisions in central locations into sizes suitable for high-density use by high buildings and for comprehensive estate planning to produce aesthetically satisfying communities in a more restricted space. It is a worthy objective, but its realisation will take a long time and in the meantime the urban areas expand by ribbon development along the main highways and by the subdivision of more rural land.

The individual character of New Zealand cities is largely due to the natural beauty of their surroundings. The sites of the original settlements – Russell in the Bay of Islands, Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch with Lyttelton, Dunedin with Port Chalmers, and others, were chosen, no doubt, because they had good harbours and were otherwise suitable for trade, but nature had endowed each of them with a beautiful setting. Each has a distinctive visual character and each is revered by its residents for its special features. During the progressive growth of the main urban centres some features have been mutilated and others changed in expression, but the essential character of each site has been carefully preserved. Considered as a group, the main urban centres of New Zealand are unique for their natural beauty in a materialistic world

The four major cities are evenly distributed throughout the country, Auckland and Wellington in the north and south of the North Island, and Christchurch and Dunedin widely separated in the South Island. These locations were most carefully selected, all are served by good harbours for overseas trade, and each is strategically placed to serve rich pastoral or agricultural land. It is not surprising therefore that they have grown into large urban centres. The development of the country spread outwards from these centres: this even distribution and their more or less simultaneous development is frequently commented upon as a most desirable pattern of colonisation, and was due very largely to the mountainous nature of the country and the separation of the two islands by Cook Strait. Interrelationship in a national sense was very difficult in these circumstances; consequently each settlement developed its own character and progressed in close association with the productivity of its own district. Auckland became the centre of the rich Waikato dairy industry. Wellington was the capital city and the natural outlet for the Hutt Valley and the Manawatu. Christchurch flourished on the rich pastoral lands of the Canterbury Plains and Dunedin on the Otago sheep country together with an exciting interlude of rapid expansion during the gold mining period. There were three other early settlements all on the West Coast of New Zealand, New Plymouth and Wanganui in the North Island and Nelson in the South Island. These did not grow so rapidly because access to West Coast harbours was more difficult and the rich lands of the interior were not as accessible, but each of these centres has grown into urban city areas.

Intercommunication between the centres was at first chiefly by a long and dreary sea journey. Rail connection between Dunedin and Christchurch was made in 1878, but Wellington and Auckland were not linked until 1908. Internal communications have steadily improved since that time. There is now a network of modern highways, railways, and airlines connecting the respective centres with rapid transport. As a result the cities' functions are being coordinated. They are in a sense losing their independence and, in some degree, their individuality.

Population density is also involved because the greatest number of people congregate in the established industrial areas. It seems that, when a population of a growing industrial centre reaches a certain point, its very presence acts like a magnet to other industries which are attracted, no doubt, by the labour potential and the local consumer market. It also attracts labour from the rural towns and villages and to some extent from smaller centres. Under these circumstances it is inevitable that the favoured cities will grow rapidly. It is already apparent: the four major urban areas now have a population of over a million, or two-fifths of the total population. Over 500,000, or more than half of this number, live in the Auckland area which for various reasons is at present the most favoured industrial region.

The inland cities are of later development. Hamilton, the largest, had its origin at the close of the Maori Wars. Its prosperity stems from its location on the Waikato River. The business centre of the prosperous dairy industry, it has developed as a service town, but now that its population is approaching metropolitan status it, too, is turning to industry of a somewhat specialised character. Palmerston North, the other large inland city functions similarly for the progressive Manawatu pastoral area. They may be regarded as dormitory cities to Auckland and Wellington respectively: first in a service capacity to rural activities and, later, as industrial offshoots concerned with the manufacture of goods for local consumption.

The South Island population has grown at a much slower rate than the North Island. At the beginning of the present century the total population was evenly divided between the two islands. Today, 70 per cent are in the North and 30 per cent in the South. The lower density of the South Island has slowed its change-over to industrial activity, most of which is concentrated in Christchurch and Dunedin. The inland towns are therefore smaller and can be still classified as service towns to their respective regions. The smaller cities like Nelson, Timaru, and Inver-cargill are centres of development in their own right, processing and exporting their regional produce. There are also comparable urban communities in the North Island; Tauranga, Napier, and Hastings, servicing the prosperous Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay districts.

All these towns and cities are growing as the overall population increases. In time they will establish urban functions of greater diversity but it will be a long time before they challenge the supremacy of the four major urban centres.

It is customary in New Zealand to define all boroughs and cities as urban, and all counties as rural. To reach borough status the population of a defined area must reach 1,000. A city is defined as a borough with a population of at least 20,000. The boroughs and cities elect their own governing bodies: the difference between them is simply one of status as both operate under the authority of the Municipal Corporations Act. The rural areas are under the control of the county councils and include many small towns not of borough status. When a particular urban area grows in importance several boroughs, originally independent settlements, merge to create a city; but such amalgamations are voluntary and in some cases the ratepayers reject the proposal, particularly when a city has been created and wishes to incorporate adjoining boroughs. A most interesting example of this situation is the borough of Newmarket, an important business area in Auckland; it is 182 acres in area, containing less than 2,000 residents, and is entirely surrounded by the city administration, separated in terms of local government but included within a single economic unit.

It follows that most of the larger urban areas contain a number of boroughs as well as the city administration. In addition there are certain urban districts or suburbs located in adjacent counties which logically belong to the city. Hence, for statistical purposes, cities are called “urban areas” and their population is determined in the manner described. The boundaries so established are rarely constant, although they may be held for a time for statistical comparison, but in fact they expand as the towns or cities grow by absorbing adjacent areas and their population. This makes a comparative study of growth in terms of population both complex and difficult except as a guide for general trends of development. The pattern thus created is a series of small settlements in country areas which might be termed “urban” but are in fact simply points of supply for the neighbouring rural districts. A large number of towns of borough status and 14 “urban areas” or cities are located at strategic points for external and internal trade.

The cities are not large by world standards. There are four major ones, Auckland and Wellington (including the Hutt) in the North Island; Christchurch and Dunedin in the South Island. Auckland is the largest and its population is less than half a million: the other three are still below a quarter of a million and no smaller city has yet reached 50,000, the usually accepted number for designation as a metropolis, although both Hamilton and Palmerston North have nearly reached that figure.

The majority of the towns of borough status have less than 10,000 people, but size is relative to total population and the functions the urban areas perform. This purpose, as has already been shown, was in the past and to a great extent is still, the servicing of rural enterprise. The impact of industrial activity caused by the constantly increasing population of the country has so far only seriously affected the growth of the larger urban areas which, due to their location, are most suited for industrial expansion. In these areas, population increase will be rapid thus altering completely the urban pattern.