WEALTH AND EARNINGS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4733, 7 October 1886, Page 3

WEALTH AND EARNINGS.

If we judge nations by the accumulated wealth to population, the United Kingdom c'ome3 first, Holland second, France third, Denmark fourth, Australia fifth, and the United States sixth; if by' the average earnings per inhabitant, the order js Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, J|olla_d, jianpe, ' In 1880 the wealth of twenty principal Kations amounted to 50,750 millions sterling and their annual earnings to 7300 millions.

Lands, cattle and farming implements make up 40 per cent, of the total wealth. Houses constitute one-fourth, varying from £11 per inhabitant in Russia to £65 in Great Britain, in which latter country the average value of house property per house has risen 75 per cent, since 1851. House rent takes the labor of twenty-seven days in each year of 300 working days in Europe and thirty in the United States. Public works, including over 4000 millions sterling for railways, represent nearly 7500 millions. Excluding railways, the value of public works is less than £4 per inhabitant in Spain and over £15 in Great Britian or France.

Three countries, viz., Great Britain, France, and the United States, represent one-half the total wealth of the twenty principal nations referred to. Earnings per'inhabitant amount in Australia to about £43 4s per annum, in Great Britain £35 2s, United States £27 2s, Canada £26 9s, Holland £26, France £25 7s. It appears that about 44 per cent, of tho earnings of mankind are agricultural; but in the United Kingdom the ratio does not exceed 21, and even in the United States it is but 3§ per cent. The total .expenditure of nations averages 6d daily per inhabitant for food, 2d for clothing, and 4d for rent, taxes, and sundries, in all a shilling a day. In the United Kingdom, however, it is over 20d per day, and in both the United States and France over l^d. After paying l * or iooA > clothing, rent, and taxes an Englishman has ninety-one days of the year, or their product, for leisure or luxuries, an American 75, a Frenchman 69, a German 40, and a Russian 14. The relative wealth, or surplus for leisure, determines not only house rent, but the prices of many articles of luxury in they various countries.

Tho principal countries of Europe, combined with the United States, make up a total of 88 millions able-bodied men, of whom a little more than half are engaged in agriculture. In the United Kingdom the percentage engaged in agriculture is only 14.5, as against 20.2 in manufactures : in the United States 20.1, against 23.6 ; in France 51.0, against 16.8 ; in Russia 80.8, against 2.9.—Condensed from Mulhall's History of Prices.

For Watches, Clocks, and Jewellery, go to V.'Jensen's, Eradrson-street, the cheapest Jewellery Warehouse in Napier. All repairs thoroughly executed by first-class tradesman. Satisfaction assured ; a trial will prove it. The original genuine article—Wolfe's Schnapps. For all kinds of saddlery go to James Mills, Emerson-street.