THE FALL OF PRICES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 95, 22 April 1879, Page 4

THE FALL OF PRICES.

At a meetiog of the London Statistical Society beld recently, o paper on " Tha Fall of Prices of Commodities in Receut Ye.is," w*?s rtad by Mr Giff.n. The general effect of his investigations he summed up thus: — •'The general tffect of all these figures may now be summed up. First, it has been shown, by a general table of prier-H fit the begieninc*' of each vp-.r from 1873 to 1879 inclu.ive, if at the '8 has been a general end remark-iule lull in the prices of wholesale commodities in the period, thie fall having also been to a lar»e extent coutinuoup, ond amounting in the end, with three exceptions only, to between 26 and 66 cen}. Second, it would appear from a comparison of prices by means of the index number in tbo Commercial History and Review, that the a^eta^e fall between 1873 and 1878 is 21 per cent, and that the level of prices now established is lower (ban anything recorded since 1851 in ihe tables referred to, these tahUs comprising the years 1857 and 1858, nnd each year since 1865 inclusive. Further, tbat although the fall between 1865 and 1871 appesrs greater by tbiß index number than between 1873 and the present time yet there isa special explanation of this, aod Unas been Bhown us regards the prices of imports, that the average in 1877 was considerably lower (hsu in 1868, while Ibe fall to the present level was from a lower height in 1873 than the previous fall in 1868-70 from the height of 1865. Allowing for the further fal! in prices in 1876, we are confirmed in the belief that prices are now unusually low, and there is reason to believe the present fall to be unusually great. Third, it bas been Bbown by certain tables of Mr Ellis' tbat, as regards food and raw materiaia prices at the beginning of 1878, were lower than in 1869, one ofthe years of depression following 1865, wbile prices are now considerably lower than at the beeioning of 1878 Fourth, facts ehown by the first index number cited rather undestate tban overstate the charge." The causee ol the fall were, he slated, (1) the extremity of the discrudit in recent years, and the piee.meul wsy in which failures and disclosures causing the discredit bad occurred; (2) the tffect of b_<l harvests io three years — 1875 to 1877* and (3) the prowing scarcity of gold. To the last cause he was iuciined lo attribute a permanent decline in prices; and be argued tbat, if possible, the scarcity of gold should be mitigated, or at any rata not aggravated by Legislative action. Such a change as the re-intro-duction of £l notes in England might, by economising the use of gold, relieve the scarcity.