The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3617, 25 September 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1874.

Our contemporary the ‘DailyTimes’ presents tho public with some startling discoveries in political economy this morning. It has discovered that a merchant, whosi goods go up 25 per cent,, and who sells them at that advance, is deluded if he fancies himself richer than he would have been had they not risen, wur contemporary says that Mill says the cause of a general rise in prices must be the consequence of one of three th ; ngs —speculation, tampering with the'currency, or some popular delusion. We should recommend to our contemporary a more careful study of Mill in his ol servations on price and value, as it might prevent some of those absurdities into which the journal is so often betrayed The ‘ Daily Times’ assumes that in iS'ew Zealand a general rise in prices has taken place, which is nob true. It is true that within three years wool and some other commodities that were depressed below their natural value have risen in the world’s mark -t, but that is not attributable to any one of the three causes named. It is true that meat is dearer thau three y.-ars ago, and that house rent is higher, and that servants’ wages are better; but those advances are attributable to increased demand, through increased population, and even yet the cost of eating and drinking in r-ew Zealand is much below the world’s average. And as for the de.usion under which our merchants are laboring, we s> ould like to be under it every day in the 3 ear in respect to one class of goods or another. We are inclined to think that the b dance at our bankers would prove suostant :vl enough to dispel ic. We should imagine, hj om the extraordinary mixture and character or theses in our contemporary’s theories of economic science, that it is the * Daily '•lines,’ and not the merchants, thst is suffering from delusion.