SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1894. BI-METALLISM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4813, 31 August 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1894. 81-METALLISM.

We have received an interesting , pamphlet on the ruinous fall in tho pi-ices of wheat, wool and other products of the Australasian colonies, being the text of a lecture delivered at Melbourne by Mr Edmund Jowett, concerning one of the most difficult economical questions of the present day. The view taken is that, the chief cause of the prevailing loiv prices is a defective supply of gold throughout the world, and thorefove the subject is ono of permanent interest to our farmers and producers. This scarcity of gold is described as a Bubtlo influence at work, which tends to reduce the price of everything which a man has to sell. More money tends to raise prices, and less money tends to loiyer them, so that the prices of commodities and sunplies of money aro intimntoly related, Very remarkable movemonts have occurred in prices during tho last forty years, From 1851 to 1873, there has been a corresponding decline, The period of rise was due to an increase in tho supply of money, arising; put of gold discoveries; but during- tho pasji twenty years the demand for gold has been in excess of the supply, and hence the fall in values. But this Ims not altogether arisen from a short supply of gold, but from silver being restricted as a medium of exchange since 1873, thus throwing upon gold tho duty which the inferior metal had hitherto performed in tho world's currency, It is claimed that bimetallism existed from the earjiest ages up to the year 1873, when gold mono-metallism took its place, and that the demonetisation of silver has been one of the most disastrous revolutions that the world has ever seen, leading to a great scramble for gold throughout the civilised world, and aconsequent fall in prices which may be followed by a drop to still lower levels in the future. This fall in values, it is argued, affects even the price of land, and has, in some cases, swept away the surplus value of estates. Tjis remedy for this condition of things Is declared to be international bi-iiietallism, and this is blocked by England refusing to abandon' tho nipup-metn.Hist currency, Wp note that bi-meiallio leagues have been formed in Victoria and in South Australia, and apparently some effort is now being made to establish one in New Zealand,-