INTRODUCTION 



This book is built on the results of one of a series of 

 investigations by students of Canterbury University 

 College whilst proceeding to the M.A. Degree in Eco- 

 nomics. Its publication has long been delayed by 

 conditions created by the war, and is possible now only 

 through the public spirit of the author and the publishers 

 who make it available in the hope that it may help to 

 form a sound public opinion on an industry which has 

 for the last few years been thrust unpleasantly into 

 public notice through the shortage of home-grown sup- 

 plies of wheat, difficulties of importation, high prices, 

 and the inconveniences of government regulation. 



Nearly nine years ago I wrote of a similar investi- 

 gation, "As there is no University Press in New 

 Zealand, the Government of the Dominion generously 

 undertook to print and publish the essay,* and it is 

 hoped that the official interest thus shown .... 

 will grow and bear fruit in the national endowment of 

 research." Since that time there has been much talk 

 all the world over of ' ' national endowment of research, ' ' 

 but in New Zealand very little practical provision has 

 been made, either by pubic institutions or privately, for 

 the active encouragement and effective support of 

 research in the economic sphere. 



In selecting subjects for economic enquiries, students 

 have been encouraged to choose from those presented 

 by the primary industries of the Dominion, as these 

 provide the great bulk of our wealth and control the 

 common welfare. As a recent writer on this country 

 has happily observed,! New Zealand is "a remote 

 farm," with pastoral farming in its two main branches 

 as its chief economic activity, and agriculture as the 

 handmaid to the more profitable sheep-raising and 

 dairying. Yet the economic side of the pastoral and 

 agricultural industries has not received its due share 



* Course of Prices in New Zealand, by Dr. J. W. Mcllraith. 

 tJ. B. Condlifie, in The Economic Journal, June, 1919, p. 167. 



