INTRODUCTION ix 



One of the most ultimately profitable steps the central 

 or local governments could take is the institution of a 

 comprehensive economic survey of the primary indus- 

 tries. This should reveal such results as the most suit- 

 able districts for each type of farming and the most 

 economical size and general lay out of farms for each 

 type. The problems of rural credit and finance, of 

 transport, of co-operation, of costing and relative prices, 

 of marketing, taxation, land-tenure, and land- values 

 are questions primarily of economic investigation. At 

 the present time the farmer must rest content, for lack 

 of expert advice, to do what no other business man does 

 in the same degree, produce in partial ignorance of hia 

 costs and market prospects. 



Before there can be any really effective teaching of 

 the farmer, there must be a great extension of research 

 to provide the data. In order to direct research into 

 the proper channels and make it adequate in amount 

 and effective in quality and results, large funds are 

 required to establish and equip lectureships in Rural 

 Economics at the University Colleges and to ensure 

 prompt publication of the results of research. Between 

 the occupants of these posts and the farming community, 

 on the one hand, and the Government Departments 

 concerned with agriculture, on the other, there should 

 be the closest relations so that theory and fact should 

 go hand in hand. Such relations would be fostered by 

 that frequent interchange between .the professorial, 

 Government, and business posts which has proved so 

 generally beneficial in America both to the Universities 

 and to business and farming practice. 



It is hoped shortly to supplement the present work 

 by a full enquiry into the history of the wheat and 

 flour industry in New Zealand during the war, with 

 special reference to the Government Wheat Control. 



J. EIGHT. 



Canterbury University College, 

 Christchurch, 



July 29th, 1920. 



