268 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
Government would then raise the price in self-defence, 
since they had bought at a price which was equivalent 
to 6s. 3d. cif. This anticipation was realised, for on 
January 8th, 1915, a third proclamation was issued, 
when the maximum price was fixed at 5s. 9d. per bushel, 
and at this price the Government sold the imported 
wheat, thus losing 6d. per bushel on the transaction. 
The position was unsatisfactory, for the law was being 
evaded, and bread had risen to 94d. for the 4 Ib. loaf. 
Pressure had been brought to bear on Parliament from 
the merchants and the farming community, and on 
February 8th, all restrictions on the sale of wheat and 
flour were removed. Flour rose to £16 and £17 per ton 
in March and April as a result, and sales of wheat at 
7s. per bushel on trucks at country stations were not 
infrequent. 
In the absence of control the prices of wheat often 
remained at a very high figure for several months. The 
rise was accentuated by a miscalculation in the esti. 
mates of the 1915-16 crop. At first it was thought 
that the yield would be less than 5,000,000 bushels, 
and a scarcity was predicted. The price of wheat 
rose steadily, and in September, 1915, was 7s. 64d. 
per bushel. But later information as to area sown 
and probable yield per acre showed that the harvest 
would reach 6,500,000 bushels.* This was due mainly 
to a much larger area than usual of spring wheat 
being sown. Although it was unfortunate that such a 
scarcity had been predicted, the error appears to have 
been largely unavoidable. Price then fell, and during 
the later months of 1915 was about 4s. 10d. per bushel, 
but there was another rise early in 1916. All this time 
the price of flour was disproportionately high; for, in 
January, 1914, when the price of wheat was 4s. 54d., 
the price of flour was £10 5s. per ton. The corresponding 
*The actual harvest of 1916 was 7,108,360 bushels. 
