Our Paris Letter.

Manawatu Herald, 10 April 1894, Page 3

Our Paris Letter.

(from our own correspondent.) Paris, 15th February, 1894. An eminent French statistician, M. Roun, says :— " If one compares the price of wheat in the great cities of Europe, he will find, that the price of wheat is higher in Paris than elsewhere, and that the difference corresponds to the amount of the duty on foreign wheat. On the 10th of December, 1893, the price of wheat per 100 kilogrammes at Berlin was 17 francs, at Vienna, 16 francs, at London and Antwerp 15 francs, and at Paris 21 francs. Between 1883 and 1893 the average production of French wheat aggregated JOG million hectolitres, and during the same period the import into France of foreign wheat amounted to 20 million hectolitres —that is to say, one fifth of the national production." The French Government proposes to raise the duty on foreign wheat from five to seven franc? and if the above statistics are correct, the price of wheat in Paris must, when the new duty comes in force, rise considerably beyond the price of 21 francs. This will mean dear bread, which in France is the pvinpipol article of Consumption among the wording elapses, The presept duty of five franps on foreign wheat seems high eqough, and aft'ords a reasopabje protectiqp to the French Agriculturists, whjje it does not much interfere With the importation of foreign wheat. Jt |s juiwh to he feared, that a higher rate of. duty, while reduoing foreign imports, would considerably raise the price of the main article of food among the French working classes, M. Yrea Guyot, the late Minister of Public Works, lately published a work called " The Tyranny of Sooialism," and ho has how written another, called " The Principles of 1789 and Socialism Contrasted." M. Guyot aims at showing that the guiding principle of the doctrines preached in 1789 was — respect for individual liberty ; while the leading principle of Socialism is the absorption of the individual by collecticism in some form, either with or without the State. In •hort, according to M. Guyot, the Socialists are not Republicans, but a species of Reactionaries. He further contends, that Socialism is the sworn enemy of individual property, and openly avows its sympathy with violent methods for bringing about the desired general confiscation. Therefore the Socialists are essentially Revolutionists, as they are perfectly aware, that the spoliation, they contemplate, can be brought about by uo other means.