ON VALUE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume III, Issue 2, 28 February 1857, Page 3

ON VALUE.

Listen, friends, while we endeavour to explain to you somewhat relating to things which are esteemed valuable by men; why some things are said to be valuable, and other things to be of no value. Gold and silver are the most convenient metals lo use as money, because they take up but little room in proportion to their value. But why should gold and silver be of so

much more value than iron? For ihey are i not nearly so useful. We should be very ill i off without knives, scissors, sparJes, toma- j hawks, axes and iron pots; and these could j not be made so well from anything as from j iron; and silver and gold would make very I bad tools indeed. To understand this you must remember j that it is not the most useful things ihat are I of the most value; nothing is more useful, I i than air and water, without which we could not j live. Yet these are, in most places, of no value in j the proper sense of the word ; that is no one j will give anything in exchange Tor them, because he can have them without. ■ln some places, indeed, water is scarce ; j and then people are glad to buy it. You may read in Scripture of many quarrels thai j arose about wells of water; because in some | of the eastern countries, water is so scarce j that a well is a very important possession. \ But water is not more useful in those places I where people are glad to buy it, than it is I here, where by the bounty of Providence, ii I is plentiful. It is the scarcity which gives j it value; and where iron is scarce it is of! great value. Some islands which our ships have visited I produce noiron; andthepeoplethcrcareglad ; to get a few nails in exchange for a hog. It I was the same in New Zealand in former times. I Iron was greatly prized and the Maories ; would readily part with the most valuable! articles for a few bits of old iron. But, in j most countries, iron which is the most use- \ ful of all metals, is also, through the goodness j cfProvidence, the most plentiful. .Butsiillit is

of some value ; because it must be dug from the mines, and smelted in furnaces, and •wrought into tools, before we can make use of it. If knives and nails, were produced by nature ready made, and could be picked up everywhere like pebbles, they would be of no valur, because every one might get them for nothings but they would be just as useful as they are now. Scarcity alenp, however, would not make a thing valuable if there were no reason whv any one should desire to possess it. There are some kind of stones which are scarce, but of no value, because they have neither use nor beauty. You would not §i\e anvliing in exchange for such a stone ; not because you can easily -gel it; bui because you have no wish for it. But a stone which is scarce and very beautiful, may be of great value, though "it is of no use hut to make an ornament for the person. Such are diamonds, and rubies and many others. Many people will work hard co earn money enough to buy, not only food and necessary clothing but also lace and jewels, and other articles of finery. And they desire these things the snore, because, besides being beautiful to the eye, they are reckoned a sign of wealth in the person who wears them. A bunch of wild flowers will oflener be a prettier ornament than a fine ribbon, or a jewel; but a woman Ifkes hotter to wear these last, to shew that she can afford ihe cost of them ; whereas the wild flowers may be had for picking. There is no harm in people desiring to be wed dressed according to their sialiou in life; hut it is a pity lhal so many should be fond of expensive finery above their station which often brings them to poverty. And ofien they spend mohey on orna.nenis, which would be better laid out in buying good, useful do lies and furniture, and in keeping then (dean. A mixture of finery with rags and dirt is a most disgusting sight. You understand now, I hope, that whatever is of value must not only be desirable

Toriis or beauty,or some pleasure it affords, bin, also scarce; lhai is so limited in supply thai, ii is not 10 be had for nothing. And of u'.l thing* which arc desirable. tho>e are ihe ■most valuable which arc the most limited in supply ; that is, the hardest to be got. This is the reason why silver and gold are of more value than iron, because they are so much scarcer and harder to be got. Until ■very recent times they have been found but in small quantities. Gold is obtained chiefly in the form of dust, by labourers washing of the sand of certain streams. It costs as much in labor and other expenses to obtain fourteen pounds, of silver, as to obtain one pound of gold ; and this is the cause that one pound of gold will exchange for about fourteen pounds of of silver. Hut besides being desirable and scarce, {hen* is one point more required for a thing to have value* or, in oiher words, lo be such, that something else may be had in exchange for it. it must be something that you can part will* lo another peron. For instance, health is very desirable, and is what every one cannot obtain : and hence, we sometimes speak of health as being of value ; but no one can give his health to another in exchange for something else. Many a rich man would be glad to give a thousand pounds or perhaps leu thousand pounds, in exchange for the healthy constitution and strong limbs of a poor labourer; and perhaps, the labourer would be glad to make such a barg.n; but though he might cut off his limbs, he could not make them i another man's; he may throw away his health, as many do, by intemperance; but be cannot transfer it—that is, part with it to another person. From 'The Home Friksd."