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New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8169, 22 August 1887, Page 4

Our contention in reply to the argument that “ because the New Zealand exports have not increased in value proportionately to the increase in the population and debt and taxation of the country—therefore there has been no real progress,” is misstated by a contemporary. We maintained, first, that the low export value was due, not to the Public Works policy, but to the excessive and unexpected fall in the prices of all our products in the English markets; and, secondly, that the low nominal value of our exports was partly compensated by the fact that, owing to the coincident diminution in the price of the goods imported, we obtain so much more actual value for every sovereign represented by the nominal export values that the position was in reality far better than it appeared on paper. Those two points are perfectly intelligible, and the view seems to us a reasonable one.