The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26,1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 1003, 26 November 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26,1878.

Equal and exact justice to aIL men, j j Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or Dolitical. • . v v ; * * : ■.*■•<••.,.*■.,,.■■'* Here shall the Pi-ess the People's; right maintain, ' " " '; < ' . .' Gnawed by iutluenofl and unbribed oy gain.; •■; " •■;■' •' :i '''' ';

A. far more important "telegram'to Now Zealand than eyen that of the refusal of the Ameer of Afghanistan to reply to the ultimatum of Great Britain,.was that which wo published on Saturday with respect to, the wool market. Wool is the most important product of this colony, and a fall of oie penny in the lb. means the loss of. a very large portion of the income of New Zealand settlers. The yearly export of wool kiui the colony was last year, lbs. pf the value of :£3,658,938 ; and;a fall therefore of a penny per lb. means a loss of no less than £265j338, or, in round numbers, for every drop of a penny in,the lb. in avool, the produce of thewoolgrowers of New Zealand is depreciated to the extent of more than a quarter of a million sterling. The telegrams received give no information as to ' the cause of the decline, but', .probably the fact tint, the cotton market has been glutted'for some little time past, and that prices in that product'have ruled' very low may have something to do with .'the matter. "lb is,, pi course, possible that as the London sales proceed the prices may rally, but the probability of their doing; so seems less likely to be [ realised front the fact that the fall in price appears to have been a matter outside the ordinary question of supply and demand, for we find that the attendance of horn© aud. foreign, buyers was, large!, and that the competition was keen. : While on this subject,. it, may not be uninteresting to manyof our readers if. we take.a short retrospect of the wool-producing industry in this eolovvv, Comparing the present with the past. As in other' products, so in wool New Zealand has rapidly and steadily advanced as a producer. Going,back to. 1869, previous to the introduction of the present colonial policy we find the production Of wool less than'half what it is now, or only 37,765,656 lbs. "of tho value of £1,371,230. In 1872 and 1873 it remained at forty-oue .millions of pouuds but in 1874 it increased by more than five millions of pounds and hts continued steadily at the same rate of increase up to the present year. Of exporting ports, Auckland stands sixth upon the list even with Poverty Bay exports added sending away only 3,111,251 lbs, as against 19,743,621 lbs ; from Dunediu, 17,101,431 lbs. from Lyt,teltcn; 13,946,610 lbs. from Wellington,;. 5,480,445 lbs from Napier, and 4,975,480 lbs. from Tnvercargill.

Later telegrams received announce the market fitful and depressed.