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, ete., easily occupy the premier 
position among our exports, in 1913 totalling 124 millions 
sterling out of a total export of about 224 millions. 
Prices for wool and frozen mutton have risen steadily 
since 1900, the increase in price being as follows :— 
TABLE XIX. 
INCREASES IN THE PRICES OF WOOL, FROZEN MUTTON, 
AND WHEAT DURING THE DEOADE, 1900-9. 
Wool | enon Wheat 
Decade 1890-9 say are 100 100 100 
» 1900-9 Sie seis 130 116 101 
Percentage rise bee sae 30 16 1 
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. 
