the consumer.

PRICES OF RESIDUAL PRODUCTS.

What is of far more real consequence to us than the possible change from
coal gas to oil gas, however, as long as we remain manufacturers of the
former, is the value of our residual products, which has suffered so
great and sudden a decline in value, for which various remedies have
been proposed, though none of them, I regret to say, have as yet
restored anything like the former value. A statement of the highest
prices realized for coal tar products, and a comparison with those
obtained on the 30th of March last year and at the same time this year,
may not be uninteresting:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Highest | Price on | Price on |
| | Price | March 30, | March 30, |
| | | 1886 | 1887 |
| |--------------+---------------+---------------+
| | per gal. | per gal. | per gal. |
| |----+----+----+---+-----------+---------------+
| | L | s. | d. | L | s. | d. | L | s. | d. |
| |----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+----+-----+
|Crude naphtha | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41/2 | 0 | 0 | 81/2 |
|Benzol (90 per cent.)| 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
|Solvent naphtha | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|Burning naphtha | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 101/2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
|Creosote oil | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 03/4 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| | | | |
| | per ton. | per ton. | per ton. |
| |----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+----+-----+
| | L | s. | d. | L | s. | d. | L | s. | d. |
| |----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+----+-----+
|Pitch | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 6 |
|Sulphate of ammonia | 21 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 10 | 0 | 11 | 10 | 0 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

This shows a great fall in value from highest to lowest, which seems to
have been touched last year, except in the case of pitch and sulphate of
ammonia, both of which have marked a considerable decline, even since
l