inquiry, I would refer to the annual returns. I find that in the
five years, 1842 to 1846, wheat ranged from 50s. 2d. to 57s. 9d.;
the average for the entire period being 54s. 10d. per quarter. In
the five years from 1870 to 1874 it ranged from 46s. 10d. to 58s.
8d., the average for the five years being 54s. 7d. per quarter. The
reduction in price has only been 3d. per quarter, or less than one
half per cent.

I venture to think that there are higher considerations than mere
profit to individuals, and that, as the lands belong to the whole
state as represented by the Crown, and as they are held in trust TO
PRODUCE FOOD FOR THE PEOPLE, that trust should be enforced.

The average consumption of grain by each person is about a quarter
(eight bushels) per annum. In 1841 the population of the United
Kingdom was 27,036,450. The average import of foreign grain was
about 3,000,000 quarters, therefore TWENTY-FOUR MILLIONS were fed
on the domestic produce. In 1871 the population was 31,513,412, and
the average importation of grain 20,000,000 quarters; therefore
only ELEVEN AND A HALF MILLIONS were supported by home produce.
Here we are met with the startling fact that our own soil is not
now supplying grain to even one half the number of people to whom
it gave bread in 1841. This is a serious aspect of the question,
and one that should lead to examination, whether the development of
the system of landholding, the absorptions of small farms and the
creation of large ones, is really beneficial to the state, or tends
to increase the supply of food. The area under grain in England in
1874 was 8,021,077. In 1696 it was 10,000,000 acres, the diminution
having been 2,000,000 acres. The average yield would probably be
FOUR QUARTERS PER ACRE, and therefore the decrease amounted to the