COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 



47 



Tlie Disadvantage of a Comparison based xipon 1804 Values. 

 It must be acknowkdgod that tlie year 189 1 was one of great 

 depression in the import and re-export trade. The financial crisis of 

 1893 affected the purchasing powers of all the colonies for the time 

 being very considerably, and imports of European manufactures wore 

 much restricted. This may be judged from the general contraction in 

 the imports shown upon contrasting the returns for 1891- with 1891. 

 Again, the depression, which was world-wide, helped to contract our 

 purchasing power by giving us unprecedentedly hnv prices for almost 

 every article produced here for exportation. Wool, tallow, metals of 

 all kinds, meats and coal — of which the exports of New South Wales 

 mainly consist — were all afflicted in the same way ; and low prices 

 told extensively upon the cash value of the shipments in the face of 

 the more extended quantities exported. Mr. Coghlan, when Govern- 

 ment Statistician, computed that the average prices of New South 

 Wales exports in 1894, excluding gold, were as much as 48 per cent, 

 lower than in 1873; 41 per cent, lower than in 1884; and 29 per 

 cent, lower than in 1890 ; and it was impossible, especially in the 

 sudden collapse of prices in 1893-4, to make good these extreme 

 differences by increased quantities. Thus 1894 is an altogether ex- 

 ceptionally adverse year upon which to base a record of the trade of 

 New South Wales, and the money value gives us an altogether fore- 

 shortened picture of the real importance of that trade. Let us there- 

 fore shift our ground from values which were disheartening, and in a 

 large measure temporary, to quantities which are encouraging, and to 

 more than their full extent permanent. 



Exports of Ne%y South Wales — Home Produce. 



* In many instances there must have been considerable increases in 1895, including: hides, skins, taUow, 

 leather, copper, and meats (frozen, preserved, arid live). 



Here there is seen undoubted and sustained progress. In wool, 

 silver, and silver ores, in coal, tallow, frozen and preserved meats, hides, 

 sheepskins, leather, the increase is unmistakable. In gold the pro- 



