262 Timehri. 
years ago, Note, too, that the sugar industry (once epigrammatically 
called “the colony” by a publicist now gathered to his fathers) 
whose contribution to the Wages-Fund is large, has not made progress, 
there being no expansion of the area under cultivation, and also a falling- 
oft in the crop for export—the 99,368 tons of 1911-12 comparing with 
120,127 tons of 1902-03, and with as many as 125,949 tons of 
1905-04, this latter yield being the highest during the two decades 
ended 3lst March last. And yet prices are higher now than they 
were ten yearsago. Then dark crystals were fetching $41.50 a ton; 
last year the valuation was given as $66.68. Rum has dropped from 
$23.60 to $20.23 a puncheon, but on the other hand molasses have im- 
proved from $15 to $18.15 per puncheon. Yet, in all fairness, another 
word is necessary in explanation of increasing imports and exports. To 
draw conclusions as to prosperity or otherwise from the value of imports 
and exports is a matter fraught with great difficulty because of the many 
factors that enter into the equation. Values are not to be regarded as 
being absolutely correct, but as they are computed in the same way from 
year “to year they may be regarded as being substantially accurate for the 
purpose of comparing one financial period “with another. The value of 
exports has risen during the decade ; as also the value of the output per 
head of the population, but these facts do not necessarily mean that 
produce has been exported in larger quantities in 1911-12 than in 1902- 
03, or that the people are working harder to-day than they did ten years 
ago. The cause is chiefly due to an advance in the price of the staple 
products of the colony, and the introduction of labour-saving devices on 
sugar estates and elsewhere, so that greater quantities could be produced 
with less expenditure of man power. The value of imports has increased 
during the same period, largely because the cost of production in the in- 
dustrial centres of production has increased. Owing to the substitution 
of machinery for manual labour the price of manufactured articles should 
have decreased, but wages have increased enormously in Europe and 
Ainerica; and in the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, legislation having for 
its object the bettering of the conditions of the labouring classes has had 
the effect of raising prices. The increasing production of wold has also not 
been without its effect in this connection. It is agreed by economists 
that an increase of wages has the first effect of lowering profits, but when 
profits in a particular industry fall to the level of the normal profits of all 
industries the cost to the consumer is raised ; otherwise, capital would be 
no longer attracted to that industry. The result is, that as wages advance 
commodities as a whole, the rise of price is one of 25 per cent., so that the Index Number 
for the latter date would be 125 with 100 as basis ; or 500 if 400 were taken as basis. 
This illustration serves to show that the Index Number does not represent any given 
price, and may not even represent the change of any particular commodity. Kut it is a 
device for comparing a whole series of otherwise incomparable price schedules, the result 
representing what is known as the general level of prices. If the Index Nomberis 
accurate it represents the change in the purchasing-power of money ; that is to say, it 
tells ns how much more or less $100 will purchase at one period compared with a previous 
period. A rise in an Index Number means that fewer commodities may be purchased 
tor a dollar, a fall means that more may be purchased. 
