In March, 1891, there were 6,966,218 acres under artificial grasses, being an increase of 441,169 on the corresponding acreage of 1890. Of these 3,250,543 acres had been previously ploughed and, presumably, under grain or other crops, and 3,715,675 acres had not been ploughed, a large proportion consisting of what had been bush or forest-land sown down to grass after the timber had been felled and burnt, or partially burnt.

It will be observed that the area of land under sown grasses is about eight times greater in New Zealand than in the whole of Australia and Tasmania. When compared in size with the colonies of Australia, New Zealand is relatively small—about one-thirtieth of their total size—but when the grazing capabilities are compared, the relative importance of New Zealand is much altered.

Australia is generally unsuitable, owing to conditions of climate, for the growth of English grasses, and the amount of feed produced by the natural grasses throughout the year is very much less per acre than that obtained from the sown grass lands in New Zealand—so much so that it may be stated that the average productiveness of the grass land in New Zealand is probably about nine times as great as that in Australia; so that the land of this colony covered with artificial grass may be considered equal, for grazing purposes, to an area of Australian territory about nine times as great.

It will be noticed from the decennial export table that wool is still the largest article of export, and with the increase in the number of sheep consequent on the development of the frozen meat trade, this export is likely to considerably increase. A large amount of wool is now used in local manufacture.