126 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 



felt; and this is not surprising when we remember the 

 financial depression of the "eighties/' and the fact that 

 New Zealand was still a young country in the experi- 

 mental stage. 



Since 1890, however, the trade in frozen mutton has 

 gone ahead by "leaps and bounds," and has carried 

 along with it the importance of woollen exports. These 

 joint products of sheep farming, not to mention hides, 

 skins, fat, manures, etc., easily occupy the premier 

 position among our exports, in 1913 totalling 12^ millions 

 sterling out of a total export of about 22| millions. 

 Prices for wool and frozen mutton have risen steadily 

 since 1900, the increase in price being as follows: 



TABLE XIX. 



INCREASES IN THE PEICES OF WOOL, FROZEN MUTTON, 

 AND WHEAT DURING THE DECADE, 1900-9. 



Statistics such as these throw light on the present 

 tendencies in farming. We are told on all sides that 

 wheat production is not remunerative, that farmers will 

 have to give it up or be ruined if the scale of prices 

 ruling over the past twenty years does not alter. During 

 the " eighties" the average price was the same as that 

 during the period 1901-10 and production then was 

 apparently successful. Of course such a conclusion must 

 be supplemented by comparisons of conditions ruling 

 then and now. True, labour has risen and probably the 

 law of diminishing returns is now operating in actual 

 cultivation. On the other hand, transportation facilities 

 are better now, labour is probably more efficient, while 

 capital pays a far greater part in farming and the 

 system of farming is much improved. 



