The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1884. THE PRICE OF WOOL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1613, 19 February 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1884. THE PRICE OF WOOL.

A century ago the price of iiiio wool in England was sixpence per 11)., a rate which now, from the altered value of money, may be deemed to be equivalent to a shilling per lb. In the year 1791 the price of wool rose to ninepence a lb., and fivo years later it fell back to Bovenpence. At the beginning of the present century it rose to a shilling, and at the date of the battle of Waterloo it advanced to one shilling and Bovenpence. During the long ponce and up to the accession to the Throne, of Queen Victoria it ranged from one shilling - and twopence to one and threepence. Prom 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 through the hundred 1 years. From 1853 to 1864 it gradually advanced to. a maximum of two shillings and fourpence in the last' named year. -It then fell gradually till in 1873 it stood at one shilling and threepence. In the following year it rose to one and seven, and after dipping in 1870 to one and threepence ascended in 1871 to one shilling and eightpence, and in 1872 to two shillings and a penny, Later on began the years of famine, in 1880 it stood at one shilling and threepence, .in 1881 at elevenpence, in 1882 at tenpencp, and id 1883. at. ninepence .halfpenny, excepting for the year 1849 the lowest record of the nineteenth century. No othor product we believe Las ever exhibited such a variation in prices as wool, and unfortunately it is tho staple export of New Zealand, It is now at the lowest price at which it has been since the year 1849,,-. and taking into consideration the higher purchasing power of money antecedent to that date, it is' at the minimum rate over which the hundred years of record' extends, It can hardly be expected that it should fall any lower, • because though it may possibly be grown at existent rates in the Australian colonies at a small margin of profit, wool growing cannot be' remunerative in Europe, and the depreciation in prices must tend to contract the Bupply, There must be soon Bomp .material.recovery : in ; wool rates, buV it is questionable whether they v?ill ever reach the high prices of ten and twenty years ago;. Every extra penny per lb in'the price of wool means a quarter of a million of money to New Zealand, and could the prices of 1872 be again reached, we would get some four or five millions of wool

money jmsnla-ting in New Zealand, and •the financial difficulties of tho colony, would become "a tale that is told." It is the opinion we know of many well informed persons that wool is never likely to again reaeli a high price, but it is difficult to credit the idea that it should remain, fixed for any long period at its present minimum standard. The piping times of peace do not seem to have been favorable to wool growers. Prices usually have advanced during war periods. Wool rose in price during the Peninsula War, during the Crimean War, during the Indian Mutiny, during the Civil War in America, and during the Franco-German War. Wo trust, however, that a moderate recovery in its rates may take place without the aid of tho God of Battles.