The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4033, 1 December 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1881.

In a previous article we roughly pointed out the appreciation in value which had taken place in gold within the last few years, and stated that other commodities had fallen considerably in value during the same period, and that the fall of prices was in our; opinion the result of the adoption of a gold currency in Europe and America. The fall which has taken place in 1880, although doubtless tabulated in England, is not to hand in New Zealand, but the decrease in prices from the Ist of January, 1873, to the Ist January, 1879, will afford a firm basis from which to draw '/conclusions. The following decrease in value of the commodities named will fully bear out what we have said. The fall is as between the years 1873 and 1879 :—Scotch pig iron, 66 per cent; coals, 37; copper, Chili bars, 37; Straits tin, 57 ; wheat, 29 to 35 ; flour, 22; flour, New York price, 51; beef, 18; cotton, 46; wool 43; sugar 26; Coffee, Ceylon, 19; pepper, black Malabar, 39; saltpeter, 34 per cent. The list might by be prolonged but with the like result, shewing jthat a fall in six years had taken place, ranging from 66 per cent in the most extreme case to 18 per cent. The gradation would have been still greater as the best kind of beef had only fallen 10 per cent, while inferior had fallen 26 per cent. It is almost needless to say that the prices are English prices. They are taken from a list supplied to the English Statistical Society. The prices in fact have gone back to their; level before the [gold discoveries in California in 1848, An elaborate investigation shews that the fall is almost exclusively in raw materials. When therefore we hear about the falling off of the English export trade, we must bear in mind that an average fall of from 20 to 30 per cent, makes a very material difference on the value of the output. The fall taking place in the raw and not in the manufactured articles infringes of course most heavily on raw producing countries. Wages cannot well be reduced to a lower level in Great Britain than what they are at the present time, and though the profit of the manufacturer may have been lowered for some years past, the decrease in price has fallen mainly upon the producer of the raw material. Many people hastily suppose that commodities fall in value from over production, but this is not true relative to manufactured articles when an average of years is taken. Coal will not be taken from the mine when it costs too much to extract, and iron will not be made into bars nor rails when the making thereof entails a loss on the maker. Without, however, entering into the tangledjweb of currency and economic questions so called, one thing seems very plain, which is this. The fall of prices of commodities in recent years will cause poor gold mines to be successfully worked, and will add materially to thelprosperity of New Zealand, the golddelds of which are as yet bufr only partially explored. Silver, through the American discoveries is becoming a drug in the metallic markets,' while gold increases in exchangeable value year by year, and promises so to increase.