204 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
IV., been pursued in detail, because I am forced to believe 
that in its scarcity and comparative inefficiency lies 
a very serious obstacle, though by no means the only 
one, preventing further progress in the wheat industry, 
and diverting much land from purely agricultural 
pursuits to pastoral and dairy farming. If any dis- 
proportionate digression has been made, it is to be hoped 
that this in itself will result in attracting greater atten- 
tion to the gravity of the situation caused by the present 
state of our farm labour supply, and in assigning to the 
problem an importance adequate to the grave economic 
consequences which will follow, unless it is seriously 
studied. Indeed, it is surprising that many farmers 
should so easily have given up the problem in disgust 
as insoluble at present. Of course, while one hears it 
commonly asserted among farmers that the labour 
problem is the fundamental cause of the present trans- 
ition from wheat growing to pastoral pursuits, this 
opinion must be accepted very cautiously. The real 
position is probably that lack of labour has accelerated 
the tendency towards sheep farming, and even pushed the 
movement further than it would otherwise have gone. 
The relative degree of profit, over and above cost of pro- 
duction, obtainable from agricultural and pastoral 
farming, is the real cause of the transition; but this 
transition is not likely to be completed in the wheat 
producing area on account of the operation of a third 
cause—the relatively high rate of profit arising from 
mixed farming. For these reasons, the greatest pre- 
cautions must be observed in analysing the results of the 
inadequacy of the labour supply, both in numbers and 
efficiency. The most recent tendency in farming in 
Canterbury is the rise of mixed farming, and this 
requires, probably, more labour than is forthcoming at 
present. 
