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

John Burst,
Esq.,J.P.,
continued,
12th May 1883.
1506
50838. Have you any idea whether protection caused those implement factories to be started or not?
-I dare say it has caused some of them, but it has not caused all of them. I knew important factories before
the tariff was put on, and of course they started umler free-trade; the others have started since, so I can
scarcely answer that question.
50839. As a matter of fact, take the reaping machine, do you know whether the reaping machine is
not sold now for a little over half what it was before the duty was on ?-I know that such is the fact.
50840. The world is 5,000 years old, according to some people; but until we made those machines,
we did not get cheap reaping machines ?-That has nothing to do with it.
50841. By lvlr. Mclntyre.-Your business is essentially that of a dairyman ?-Principally so.
50842. You make butter and cheese ?-I make butter and cheese. -
50843. And though the system of taxation in this country gives you 2d. a lb. upon your production,
you do not desire to keep that tax ?-I desire to see it abolished. What good can it possibly do me when
we are exporting 2,000,000 lbs. weight per annum?
50844. If through this system of taxation 2d. a lb. has been put on in Sydney and Adelaide and you
only get the price less 2d. a lb. that the local producer regulates ; but if the tax were taken off, you would
get nearly all that 2d. ?-Not all, but a great portion of it.
50845. And the people there would get the benefit of the greater supply which you would send there?
-Yes.
50846. Do you produce any bacon ?-~L\. little ; but it is all consumed in the colony.
50847. You do not desire to continue the tax upon bacon, do you ?-I desire no taxes whatever,
except for revenue purposes.
50848. You have got 2,000 acres?-Yes ; it is not all my own.
50849. How much of it is freehold ?-Sixteen hundred acres.
50850. How long have you been in this neighbourhood ?-Twenty-three years.
50851. How many acres did you start with ?-Seventy-eight.
50852. And you have gradually increased your land until you have got this large acreage now?-Yes.
50853. You employ a number of men, do not you ?-No, I think about eight-that is six men
and two girls. -
50854. Are those employed about the dairy business ?-Yes, dairy and farm, but principally dairy.
50855. How do you pay your dairy people ?-I pay them from 12s. to £1 a week.
50856. A little less than farm labourers, who get from, say from 17s. 6d. to £1 a week and are
found ?-Yes.
50857. Is a large area of this land fit for cultivation?-Yes.
50858. How many out of the 1,600 acres are your own ?-I think from 600 to 800.
50859. And you find a dairy to be the best paying purpose you can turn it to; is that so ?-No; I
worked the dairy at a considerable loss during the cheap period of three years, which ended two years.
50860. When you were working at a loss did you hold the same opinion as you do now ?-Yes,
because of my loss.
50861. May I ask why you do not turn any portion of your farm to growing oats, which are so highly
protected by the State ?-Yes, for one thing there is a very great scarcity of labour, at least we feel it so.
As for the people living here in Lancefield, of course the labourers in the colony at the harvest :flock to
them, but we people living at the outside must do the best we can for labour.
50862. If you had cheap labour would you turn part of your land to oat-growing and other cereals ?
Yes, certainly.
50863. Do you mean cheap labour or more of it at the same price ?-I mean more of it at the same
price so long as it is good labour.
50864. So long as you are producing grain, would it not be to your interest to have the duty upon
grain that exists now ?-I think not.
50865. You would still hold your present opinion ?-Yes.
50866. Bu ~fr. Longmo1e.-Would you find any want of labour if you offered another half crown
or five shillings a week, do you think ?-My calling would not afford that ; I could not compete in the
market, and even then I could not get them I know.
50867. Bu 11/r. Munro.-How would the removal of this 2d. a lb. duty on butter improve your
position ?-I have already answered that.
50868. Really I did not catch, although I have tried to follow it. I have been thinking of it since
you have been speaking. Now, how does this 2d. a lb. affect you; you are not charged with it ?-I will try
to make it clear. Suppose butter is 4d. a lb. here, suppose it is 8d. a lb. in Sydney, then of course there is
a market in Sydney for our butter. We want to send it over and obtain that 8d. a lb., but in consequence
of there being 2d. a lb. duty it is only 6d. to us, consequently we should be losing the 2d.
50869. But you sell the butter here ?-But there would be a larger demand for it through the
merchants, who would get something out of it and would certainly buy it. It is as plain as possible, I do
not know that I could make it plainer.
50870. Then you are in favour of immigration ?-I am in favour of immigration certainly-family
immigration-it is a thing that will be needed for a very long time.
50i371. Assisted immigration ?--.Just such as we had twelve, fourteen, and sixteen years ago.
50872. You are aware that Queensland has a duty upon butter, too ?-Yes.
50873. And New South Wales ?-I am not sure.
50874. Bu Mr. Woods.-! think I understood you to say that your business is principally dairyfarming
?-Yes.
50875. So that the duties upon cereals are a matter of perfect indifference to you ?-No, certainly not.
50876. In what wa.y?-Simply because I m.ay at any season, whenever I see it would pay better
than dairying, begin to cultivate more largely.
50877. And in that case you would like to see the duty removed ?-And in that case I would like
to see the duty removed for this one thing, that it would balance the markets. Now, if we overstoclc--
50878: Never mind the argument-you say you would like to see it removed.?-Yes.
50879. You would like to see New Zealand oats come into competition with your oats 7-Yes.
50880. You can compete with them in the open market in Melbourne ?-Yes, I think so.