The Money Value of the Moon.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7070, 16 February 1893, Page 2

The Money Value of the Moon.

{National Observer.) The economist who is willing to take a little trouble will b? able to arrive at the Moon’s value - expressed, say, in sterling gold—within a million pounds or so. The Moon is a cosmopolitan good in so far as (a) she fce’ps in the production of the tidal wave ; (6) assists in the lighting of the globe; and ( o ) supplies raw material for the use of poets, *1 he sudden cessation of her labours would involve the owners of docks and shipping, municipalities charged with lighting of roads, and a number of literary men in considerable loss, and so create a variety of just claims for compensation against the person or persons responsible for her transference if she were sold, as has been suggested. The total amount of compensation required would obviously -be equal to the Moon’s absolute value. Let us ottempt to estimate the amount of Great Britain’s claim for compensation. Under the first count we must consider the diminution in the height of the tides—the Sun’s motive power by itself would be inadequate to produce the present variation in the depth of rivers, &o. — and the consequent injury inflio* ted on maritime industry and the owners of docks and wharfs. Mr Bottles estimates losses of this description at £9.000 00d. But on the other hand much land that is now useless—e g. in and about Moreoombe Bay—would become available for agriculture, build* ing,. end other uses. Great Britain would become postesied of now territory worth st

least £3,000 000. Therefore, under the first count £6,000,000 would be claimed as compensation. In the second case a smaller amount would be claimed, but since moonlight is never a nuisance in Great Britain (which of course does not include Ireland) to respectable pereonn, there is no set off to bo considered. The cloudiness of our British atmosphere, and the fact that manufacturers have not learnt to consume their own smoke reduces the value of the world's night-light* Moreover, the agricultural population goes to bsd at- curfew-time, and our large towns And the moon’s '* fantastic fires ” too faint and intermittent, to be useful. But it it the custom in many small towns to leave the street-lamps unlit three days before and three days after Full Moon, and in one town of 6000 inhabitants £l7B is yearly saved by so doing. Taking an average over the whole of Great Britain moonshine is wort-fa £19,000 a year to the ratepayer. The normal interest on money may be taken at per cent.— whence it follows that £760.000 would have to be paid to the credit of the local board* and similar bodies in the event of a sale being negotiated. Thirdly—a careful investigation of a well-known.publisher's business has convinced Ur, Bottles that tbo value of a lunar metaphor, in “ Odes to the Queen of the Night/', and similar productions, is at the rate of Jd aline. The 70 poets whose wares are marketable, produce—according to a learned critic,.- who read the complete works of all of them shortly before hie death- —on the average thirty suoh lines per annum. The income arising from this function of the Moon is therefore about £-1 10b a year ; the amount of compensation required would be £IBO. We see, therefore, that the total amount of compensation to he paid out among the inhabitants of. this island would come to £6.760,180. . Having arrived at this result, Mr Bottles, by a subtle use of the Differential I Calculus, finds that the old world would require eighty-nine millions sterling as compensation for loss incurred by the Moon’s removal. Inasmooh-as the distribution of the compensation would demand much time end labour on the part of Government and municipal, officials, Mr Bottles thus sums up the matter The reserve price of our ■stellite in an inter stellar auction-room would approximate to ninety millions of pounds sterling.'*