The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885. THE DEPRESSION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 48, 24 July 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885. THE DEPRESSION.

New Zealand is essentially a wool growing- colony. Half her exports are wool, arid it is probably the most j)jfdn\tel>le.as; vjell. as the : .largest industry m tner colony, The following* extract from • the Australasian ißkgws one cause of the present depression rrrr-During the ' present de-> .piiession m trade and downwaid course m prices almost every other important article of commerce, such as iron, tin;.. copper, wheat, meat, tallow, and jute, have touched almost the lowest level of prices ever j Mown before, and there appears to be no reason .'whatever why wool, should form an exception to this apparently .universal rule. For of the ,-two' alleged causes of the falling prices of other commodities — namely, ; an increase m the purchasing power of gold and a special overproduction o? the article itself-^both causes have been m as full and com•plete operation m wool as m other products- For during the past six 'years the *>wool -production of Australasia, South Africa, and the River Plate have. increased by ''leaps and 'bottnds^'i.andi^it can be. well understoodthat'the .-dispo§al of'these ;con tiajaajly. increas ing quantities ■• has been? impossible, without a considbrajSie' reduction m price. The extent or the increases from.:, tliese two sourcesof; supply can be measured b£ the statement, that while m 1879 th^ imports^ of colonial wool into Murppe and America . amounted to 1 only 1 ,61 6,000.. |sales, they reached in v lSB4i no less than 1,303,000 bales. The exports of wool/rom the River Plate Provinces have also increased frpih 260,000 hi 1879 to an estimaaed clip of 395,000 bales m 1885. I&imust be remembered also that the South' American ljaies>veigh twice as much as' those of Australia. When we'^nd that-the supplies from these, sources have increased during the >pa&Msix years from 1 ,528\b0Q bales ; td ; 5,093,000 bal^si the wonder is, not so much that- wool has fallen m ■•jvaliac qsjthatf it has so long beep . ablfe to maintaiii' its position.