Page:Hints on emigration to the new settlement on the Swan and Canning Rivers, on the west coast of Australia.djvu/20

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transits and Government dues. Therefore, if a moiety is netted of the £32 per ton, it is as much or more than can be expected;[1] and no apprehension need be entertained of any competition from an increase of quantity or reduction of price. It cannot be afforded in Russia under its present cost; and recently, whenever the price has declined below the rate now paid, a decrease of produce has followed.

With regard to the article of flax, none need be mislead; an excellent estimate may be made from the experience of those who have grown flax in the neighbourhood of Thorne and Goole in Yorkshire, and. others on a larger scale in Ireland. The price of very fine Yorkshire groom. flax is about 7s. per stone, or £56 per ton.

The price of best Russian flax is about £38 to £40 per ton.

Supposing therefore the same quality grown in Australia and to produce in England £56 per ton

  1. It is not more than forty years since hemp cost no more than £?15 per ton at Petersburgh, and was sold in England to advantage at £?23 per ton; therefore the expense of cultivation cannot be great. The advance has occurred from taxation in Russia, and other political causes.