THE PRICE OF WOOL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 71, 22 February 1884, Page 2

THE PRICE OF WOOL.

[Wairnrapa l'«iiy.J j A cent-iry ago the price of fine wool m England was sixpence per ilb.^ a rate Which now, from tho altered rvalue of money, may be deemed to be equivalent to a shilling per lb. In the year: 1791 the price of wool rose to niuepence.ji ; lb., and five years later it, fell back to sevenpence. At the beginning of the present century it rose to a shilling, and ab the date of the battle of "Waterloo it advanced to one shilling and sevenpence. During the long peace and up- to the accession to. the Throne of Queen Victoria, it ranged from one shilling and twopence to one and threoI pence. From that period up till 1851 it varied from ninepence to one- shilling and a : penny , the year 1849 at ninepence being the minimum price on record 1 through the hundied years. From 1853 to 1864 it gradually advanced to a maximum cf two shillings and fourpence m the last-named year. It the 1 * fell gradually till in 1873 it i stood at one shilling and threepence. | ! In the; following year it rose to one and sevenpence; and aftferi dipping m 1870 to one and threepence •ascended m 1871 to - one Shilling and eightpence, and m 1872 to two shillings and a penny. Later on began . the' yearc famine! ' In 1880 it stood 1 at brie* shilling and three pence, m 1881 i-Ab-^£Kenp.enj§,ijL_lßß2jitJenpence,an'd' m 1883 atninepeiifie halfpenny, excepting the year 1849 the lowest record of the 19th century. .No other product We believe has ever exhibited such a variation m prices as wool, and unfortunately it is the staple export of New Zealand. It is now at the lowest price at which it has been since tbe yeor 1849, and taking into consideration: the highei* ; purchasing, power of money antecedent to that date, it is at the minimum rate over which the hundred years of, record extends. Tt can I j hardly be expected that it should; fall 'any lower, because thougli it may be possibly be grown at existent rates m the Australian .. colonies' at a small of margin profit, wool growing cannot be remunerative m Europe, and ttie i depreciation m prices .musb tend to contract the supply, there must be soon some material recovery m; jyool \ rates, but it ia questionable whether, they will ever reach the ..high' prices of ten and twenty yearsuigo. ; Every extra penny per lbin;the prioe* of wool means a quarter of a million of money ; to New Zealand, and could the prices of „1872 be again reached,. f we would get some four. or fi^e .millions of moneyocirculat.ing!in.is T ;ew Zea]and r ,knd thejfinancial. difficulties of the colony • would. becom^ " a.talo that is told." Ie is the opinion we know of many well-informed persons that wool is never likely to again reach a high price, but it is difficult to credit the idea that it should remain fixed for. any long peiiod at its present minimunv standard. The piping tiu\e» of peace do;, not seem,. ..to. have been favorable u to; wool-growers. Prices usually have -advanced, daring, war peri6ds.» Wool rose m priw|dinadg tlie Peninsula War, during, the Crimlean War, during the Pridian Mutiny, dur^ i ing ithe Civil Wanin; AraerJoa^" aad during the;Fran(tQrCierhianiWar.L "We trust, however, that a moderate recovery m its rates may again take place without the aid of the G-od of Battles.