HISTORY OF WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 99 



100 represents the average annual price for the years 

 1890-9. 



But the period of stagnation was only temporary, 

 for those very forces which were responsible for the 

 abandonment of agriculture laid the foundations for 

 the decided step forward which the Colony took in 

 the ten years following. With prices already high and 

 the prospect of the maintenance of the high level, 

 with the constantly growing attention which New 

 Zealand was attracting in the Motherland on account 

 of the gold discoveries and her natural qualifications 

 for agriculture and the development of regular com- 

 munication with foreign countries, and access to their 

 markets, agriculture especially wheat growing, received 

 an impetus at what may be called the strategic time. 



2. Period of Expansion. 



Wheat growing now proceeded apace, and during the 

 "seventies" great progress was made. In the period 

 1860-9, the average annual area under wheat in New 

 Zealand was 47,000 acres, and in the following decade 

 it was 159,000 acres, while prices maintained a satis- 

 factory level, being at an average of 4s. 7d. for the 

 decade 1871-80. 



The early "seventies" marked a period of great pros- 

 perity throughout the whole world, which was reflected 

 in New Zealand in the optimistic attitude of the Govern- 

 ment and in the readiness of the colonists to launch 

 out on new enterprises. It was in these circumstances 

 that Sir Julius Vogel brought forward his Public Works 

 Policy. Vogel's cheery optimism soon convinced the 

 colonists of the benefits of his scheme, and he set out on 

 his ambitious borrowing policy in order to open up the 

 country by roads and railways and introduce improved 

 facilities for communication. A substantial National 



