New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4292, 22 December 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1874.

The English news by telegraph, which we published _ yesterday, is not without interest in the colony for many reasons, but chiefly because it indicates a fall in the value of wool. The latest date giving particulars of the series is December Bth, and the New Zealand Trust and Loan Company sends a special telegram, stating that “ the wool sales closed flatly; nearly ‘ ‘ all descriptions declined from lid. to “ 2d. . . The prospects of next sale “ are not so good.” This is really a serious matter. It is undeniable that very much of the prosperity of the colony is attributable to the high price which wool has latterly fetched. Had the selling price of this staple remained at the low quotations which ruled during and after the Franco-Prussian war, the success of the colonising policy of 1870 would not have been so marked .as it is. Whether the decline in price is attributable to the unsettled state of European affairs does not appear, but we think it is quite possible that this cause has had much to do with it. Despite the pacific professions of the chiefs of the great military Powers, there is an uneasy feeling abroad, the sure prelude of coming strife. Germany desires, above all things, to become a great Naval Power, and to that end has begun to coerce Denmark. This little State holds the key of the Baltic, which, if in German hands, would open the way to naval enterprise abroad. Danish people, in the annexed duchies of Scleswig-Hol-stein, are subjected to a Germanising process with a vengeance. They have the option of tacit submission or migration to old Danish soil. The Copenhagen Government has protested against these highhanded proceedings, and Prince Bismarck coolly replies that the best guarantee Denmark can have for its independence is to become a member of the Germanic Empire ; in' other words, to place its army, navy, arsenals, and resurces generally at the disposal of the Berlin Government. If King Christian is induced to consent “lest a worse thing “ befall him,” well and good ; but if not, Germany may be compelled to occupy the Danish peninsula in the interest of Fatherland. Russia has taken alarm at the unmislakeable tendency of Prussian policy in Northern Europe, and is increasing the effective strength of her army ; —a move which is at once challenged by Kaiser William, who asks for a corresponding addition to the German army. Meanwhile, Russia declines to acknowledge Serrano’s dictatorship in Spain, which Bismarck, for ulterior purposes of his own regarding France, is anxious to sustain ; and the Czar is just reported to have come to an understanding with Prance on the Eastern question—“an understanding” that may largely compromise England, and load to a rearragement of the maps of Eastern Europe and Asia at no distant date. Thus, Russia resents the encroachments of Germany on the Baltic, which the St. Petersburg Government has been accustomed to consider a Russian lake, the Scandinavian States being powerless to check her; and at the same time pursues her traditional policy of absorbing Turkey, and dominating the Black Sea, while menacing Syria, Persia, and British India. In addition to these disturbing causes, there is the ecclesiastical policy of Prussia, which may at any moment precipitate a religious “ war.” In view of all these contingencies, not to speak of the conflict between capital and labour now being waged in Europe, it is reasonable to conclude that the demand for wool should become slack. Let us hope, however, that our anticipations may not be realised, and that peace instead of war may prevail. At the same time, it is hardly probable. Europe is a vast camp. German unity is a standing menace to surrounding states; and above all, Prussia, which dominates Germany, has placed itself in antagonism to the Roman Church, which is much more powerful, as a political factor, than may at first sight bo supposed. The torch of war once kindled, there is no telling when it may bo extinguished, or where it may burn. At all events, the prospects of the next series of wool sales depend very greatly indeed upon the turn European politics may take.