98 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 



cultivation, and suitability for pure agriculture, were 

 destined to form the main centres of rural life for 

 the next three decades. In 1853 Canterbury (founded 

 in 1849 by the Canterbury Association) was made 

 a province under the new constitution. That Can- 

 terbury would soon be the leading agricultural 

 community was realised almost immediately, and a 

 writer of that time states, "The pastoral merits of 

 Canterbury have somewhat obscured her agricultural 

 capabilities. The heaviest crops I have ever seen in 

 New Zealand or in any part of the world, I saw on the 

 Canterbury Plains, and should wheat ever pay better 

 than wool in New Zealand and become the leading 

 export no two other Provinces will, I think, produce 

 more of such export than Canterbury and Otago." 



At first pastoral pursuits flourished at the expense 

 of wheat production, and then came the * ' gold rushes ' ' 

 of the early sixties as counteracting forces. But 

 immigration proceeded rapidly and the great influx of 

 population during the sixties created something of a 

 social revolution in the Colony. In 1861 the total 

 estimated population was 89,323, three years later it 

 had almost doubled, while in 1870 the numbers had 

 reached 248,000. Contemporaneously with this the 

 export of food stuffs dwindled, while prices of farm 

 products rose considerably, consequent on the in- 

 creased demand and the plentiful supply of the circu- 

 lating medium. The allurement of the gold discoveries 

 had turned the attention of the colonists from the 

 monotonous pursuits of farming to such an extent 

 that the area in wheat, estimated at 29,547 acres in 

 1861, had decreased to 25,607 acres in 1864. Meanwhile 

 prices had been rising steadily, and Dr. Mcllraith's 

 History of Prices in New Zealand shows that the price 

 of farm products rose in the period 1862 to 1866, the 

 index number being 186 in 1862 and 224 in 1866, where 



