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 
