Minutes of Evidence p.1401-1509 - Parliament of Victoria

1503
50755. Thn.t leaves you 836 acres of your own freehold '?-Yes, it is about that. Wlllinm Wllson,
50756. What do you estimate the value of that freehold at ?-I do not estimate it at over £3 or £4 .,0 ,~t~~~.
an acre. 12th Muy 1883.
50757. Then yom land is not so good as Mr. Graham's ?-No, it is not.
507 58. Have you auy idt?a of the total outlay upon your 120 acres that you cultivated last year ?­
The outlay upon that, as far as I can remember, was between £300 and £400.
50759. For the 120 acres ?-Yes.
50760. Could you tell the income from it ?-I could not tell the income from it, but I could tell the
income from the whole.
50761. But you have not a, separate account of that ?-The income from that year you can hardly
take as a just estimate; I may have grown this year and may hold over till next year.
50762. But vou can tell us the value of what vou have in hand from last year's crops ?-I can
hardly tell. " "
50763. By the Cl~airman.-You reckon 120 acres produced upon the average 28 bushels to the
acre?-Yes, taking the various crops and averaging them all round.
50764. By Mr. 1Jfum·o.-Are you in favom of malting in bond ?-If it could be carried out honestly;
but I have been told they bring in an inferior kind of grain, and that goes into competition with our oats
as feed.
50765. By the Ghairman.-It could not possibly come out of bond and come into competition with
you without paying duty ?-Our oats go out, and a quantity come in of an inferior class. A quantity of
ours go out, and they get a drawback upon it. ·
50766. There has no U.rawback ever been allowed ?-[No answer.]
50767. By llfr. Jlfum·o.-'Ne are now referring to barley. Supposing New Zealand. barley came
in of an inferior quality, do you mean to say that our Victorian-grown barley would be made mto malt and
exported in lieu of the inferior barley that came from New Zealand ?-That is just what I mean.
50768. Is the barley that we grow here superior to the barley they grow in New Zealand?­
I cannot answer that question.
50769. Do you know, of your own knowlcdO'e, that there is imported from New Zealaud inferior
barley, or barl.cy of a certain class ?-I have read in °the newspapers tlutt it comes in here as horse-feed, and
onrs goes out, and they get the drawback, and that is equal to bringing in the other duty free.
50770. Tell me this a.s a farmer and as a practical man, would there be any means of tletecting, after
the barley was imported and converted into malt, whether it was Victorian-grown or New Zealand-grown?
-I do not know that there would be.
50771. Could an expert tell which was which ?-I really could not tell.
50772. Then if we were to 11llow malting in bond, what check would the Customs have upon their
substituting or exporting Victorian-grown barley in lieu of New Zealand, which they have importedwould
there be any means of checking it ?-The only means I see is keeping a watch over it o.ll the
time.
50773. Have you any scarcity of labonr ?-At present, no ; I have had.
5077±. fbd you last season ?-I woultllike emigration if it was the right kind.
50775. You would be in favour of importing labour ?-Yes, of the right kind, but not
incliscrimiJ!atel y. .
50776. What would you consider the right kind ?-Agricultural labourers and tlomestics.
50777. Domestic servants ?-Yes.
50778. You would not be in favour of free immigration ?-Not the clearing of the workhouses at
home.
50779. You would like to have the passages reduced to a low rate, so that working men could come
out here ?-I believe in the principle of those here helping thelr friends to come out, so that we should get
the proper quality.
50780. Are you in favom of the duty upon implements ?-Yes, if I can get a good price for what
I grow, I am very willing to give a good price to local Mtieans.
5078 I. By JJ:[!'. Woods.-! suppose in your importation of labour you would include the importation
of doctors, lawyers, parsons, and financiers, would you not ?-I think there are too many of them in the
()Olony already.
50782. B,y M1·. Long more.-Do you find farm servants getting rich beyond those that employ them?
-No, but the case is this, because they are scarce you cannot get them to act properly. The more scarce
they are, the lesR work you can get them to do.
50783. B;IJ Mr. Woods-They talk about eivht hours to you now and then, do they ?-Yes.
50784. By MT. Longmote.-Yon want to g~t them at a gootl price ?-'.No, but, as I say about the
artisans, if I get a good price I would give them o.. good price.
50785. And if you have not wol'k for them, of course you send them about their business ?-It is
not likely I should keep them.
50786. In refereucc to the malting of barley in bond, do you know that New Zealand barley is
malted in a separate malt-house from :1ll other barley ?-No, I was not t1Ware how they managed it.
50787. Have you heard that it was so ?-All that I heard is that they brought in an inferior class,
which they would not use for malt, and which is used as horse-feed.
50788. Have you ever heard there was a malting-house appointed specially for grain that came into
the colony ?-No.
50'789. From what you say, I take it you believe that they buy an inferior article at a very low
price in New Zealand, and pay the duty upon it, of course; but you believe they send out our barley and
get a drawback upon it ?-I have been told so-I clo not know the tricks of the trade.
50790. By the Cltairrnan.-Do you know the difference between malting in bond ancl being allowed
a drawback upon malt that has paid duty as baTlcy ?-No, I do not know the difference.
50791. You know that there arc two different ways of dealing with this question that are under
·discussion. You sometimes hear of it spoken of aB malting in bond and sometimes as a drawback, do you
not?-Yes, .