184 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 



returns was quickly becoming a matter of no small 

 consequence, and it was recognised more and more after 

 each harvest that careful tillage was becoming necessary 

 for profitable production. The dominance of agriculture, 

 so characteristic of rural life on the Plains in the early 

 ' ' eighties, ' ' was rapidly giving way to pastoral interests ; 

 for the year 1882 had witnessed the successful ex- 

 portation of a shipment of frozen mutton from our 

 shores to the United Kingdom. To the farming com- 

 munity, indeed, to the whole country, this development 

 almost meant salvation from something akin to ruin. 



Almost in desperation, the country now pursued the 

 new industry with an energy and perseverance common 

 only to those who, after experiencing such gloom as 

 our country passed through in the early " eighties," 

 recognise that their last hope lies in their individual 

 efforts in some new direction. So great was the expansion 

 in this industry, that within a single decade our exports 

 of frozen mutton had risen to over one million hundred- 

 weight, with a value of considerably more than one 

 million pounds sterling. But it was not long before it 

 was recognised that pastoral farming, suitable for pro- 

 ducing fat stock, required English grasses for fattening 

 the sheep in the final stage. The only way to provide 

 these was to adopt the practice of mixed farming, and 

 the pursuit of this required small holdings. The final 

 blow to the large agricultural estate came in the early 

 "nineties" when the Graduated Land Tax was imposed, 

 and proved a great hindrance to the existence of large 

 holdings. In 1892 the Government decided, by the Land 

 Act of that year, to purchase such estates as were pro- 

 curable, and lease them in small holdings on the 999 

 years' lease system. Under the combination of these 

 circumstances the large estates which had been the 

 dominant feature of agriculture for almost two decades, 



