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New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8168, 20 August 1887, Page 4

It is argued that because the New Zealand exports have not increased in value proportionately to the increase in the population and debt and taxation of the

Colony—therefore there has not been real progress. Without going into thtj whole question on the present occasion, we desire to point out that there is an important fallacy underlying this contention. Two points seem to us to have'been overlooked. In the first place, the small increase in the aggregate value of ouif exports does not imply that we have exported so much less than might have been expected, but that wliat we did export has realised so much smaller a sum than might have been counted on. It is the terrible fall in the prices of wool and grain and meat and tallow that has spoiled our show of ex-port-values. We have steadily increased our output, but we have got so much less for every ton that the total is relatively disappointing. There is, however, something on the other side. The prices of most of our articles of import have also fallen so greatly that, if we get less now for everytton of export, we obtain more for every sovereign represented by those exports. Thus both the exports and the imports represent far larger comparative quantities than the mere values would indicate.