262 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
because Australia would be able to export to us yearly 
large quantities at lowered prices. Moreover, the millers 
prefer Australian wheat on account of its superior 
quality, and they would therefore welcome the change. 
This view of the matter is unquestionably more reason- 
able, but it is not convincing. 
If we ignore the effect of the import duty, New 
Zealand prices, as well as Australian, are determined 
by conditions in the world’s markets. It is not local 
conditions which primarily determine these prices, 
though no doubt they exert a certain influence, already 
described in Chapter VI.* Now, Australia finds a 
ready market in London for her wheat, and a regular 
shipping service exists between the market and the seat 
of production. New Zealand would be prepared to take 
only comparatively small supplies; for with her high 
yield per acre, a small area would produce almost 
sufficient quantities for home consumption. Thus. 
150,000 acres of superior land could easily be found 
yearly, and with careful husbandry this would yield, 
say, 6,000,000 bushels, that is, 40 bushels per acre—not 
an impossibility when we consider that Lincoln Agri- 
cultural College Farm has had an average yield of 47-2 
bushels per acre during the past nine years.t Moreover, 
since cereal growing is an assistance to successful 
pastoral farming, this area would probably be forth- 
coming. 
*See page 97. 
+This is not the only farm where high yields are obtained. 
The writer is informed that improved methods of farming would 
result in an increase in yield per acre which might bring it 
as high as 40 bushels. In 1903 the yield was 38°37 bushels, and 
the average for the years 1905-14 was over 30 bushels. No 
country has better opportunities for obtaining such a high yield, 
and the further development of intensive farming in Canter- 
bury is likely to work in this direction. It is hardly necessary 
to point out that the writer does not declare that New Zealand 
will produce wheat at the rate of 40 bushels per acre. He 
merely states it as a possibility for which there is good evidence. 
