n6 



Parliamentary Publications. 



It is recognised that a prominent fact in the agricultural 

 history of one portion of the year 1898 was the rise which 

 occurred in the price of wheat, and this is examined at some 

 length from the statistical point of view, and as to the 

 extent to which a rise of this nature, occurring as it did so 

 late in the cereal year, affected the interests of British wheat 

 farmers. The fluctuations in the price of British wheat for 

 each quarter of the six years 1893-98 inclusive are compared 

 with the varying imports of wheat and flour into the United 

 Kingdom in each period, distinguishing the supplies coming 

 from sources of supply so irregular as Argentina and India 

 respectively. This section of the report is illustrated by a 

 diagram. The general average price of wheat, 34s., for the 

 year 1898 was the highest recorded since 1884, with one excep- 

 tion, that of 1 89 1, when it was 37s., but the range between the 

 highest and lowest weekly average was from 48s. id. (in 

 May) to 25s. 5d. (in September), and was greater than had 

 been recorded in any year since 1868. 



Quotations of the prices of meat, all tending in the direc- 

 tion of lower values in 1898, are supplied from the markets 

 of London, Liverpool, and Glasgow, and the prices of fat 

 cattle at twelve of the chief live stock markets scheduled 

 under the Weighing of Cattle Act are tabulated for reference ; 

 while a new table is added, giving, for comparison, the 

 quotations for various classes of dead meat at the London 

 Central Market for the past three years. 



The section of the returns devoted to statistics of agri- 

 cultural imports contains information for a series of years. 

 An increase, measured by value, of nearly ^14,000,000 

 occurred, it is shown, in 1898 over 1897 in the imports of 

 grain, flour, fruit, vegetables, dead meat, and other miscel- 

 laneous animal produce ; and although there was a slight 

 reduction in the imports of dairy products and live animals, 

 this diminution, on the other hand, amounted to less than 

 ^2,000,000. 



Major Craigie states that he has been able to obtain from 

 the official colonial reports, and with the co-operation of the 

 agents-general of most of the several Australasian colonies, 

 much more complete and detailed statistics of the areas and 



