AN ENQUIRY. 11 



more and more shows — the other elements of 

 public health and social order to which we have 

 referred — elements absolutely necessary to the 

 continuance in sound condition of any State. 



The lowness of prices to which we have 

 alluded has not been temporary; and the fact 

 makes the claim for tariff reform the more 

 important. The last Royal Commission on Agri- 

 culture, moreover, declared there was a 

 consensus of opinion amongst the witnesses 

 before it that the depression in prices was " pro- 

 gressive " ; indeed, so unanimous was the 

 testimony from nearly all parts of the country, 

 that the Commission considered it unnecessary 

 in its report to go at length into the statements 

 of the individual witnesses. We may, however, 

 add that the views expressed by these themselves 

 were emphasised by the evidence gathered by 

 the various assistant Commissioners who 

 travelled the country and who made independent 

 enquiries on behalf of the Commission. 



But loJiat has been the actual depression in 

 the prices of agricultural produce? Sir Robert 

 Giffen states that between 1874 and 1891 the 

 fall in the annual value amounted on the average 

 to 77 millions sterling, or 25 per cent., and it 

 is, of course, common knowledge that there has 

 since that period been a still further serious 

 decline. 



Grain. 



The average price of wheat, for example, 

 was higher in 1891 than in the previous 



