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

1508
Dav!d Gibson, first reaping machine I paid less for than I paid when I bought one last year. I bought a hay rake for
ron.tinued,
~2th May 1883 .. £14 fourteen years ago, and I want a new one now, and I cannot get one under £19. The only instru~
ment that I know of that has been cheapened is the plough. .
50914. All that evidence is substantially useless unless you can make it perfectly plain to the Corn~
mission that the implements you are now purchasing v.re not superior to the implements you bought
previously ?-I do not see that there is so very much difference.
50915. Is that the only point upon which you differ from Mr. Hurst ?-That is the principal point
upon which I differ from Mr. IIurst. ·
50916. In other respects you accept his evidence as expressing your views ?-We have quite plenty
of labour here already.
50917. You have nothing further to say?-I do not see that it is at all necessary to the well-being
of the colony that the duties upon oats, cheese, and butter should be retained. I do not see that it is
absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the colony.
50918. You are not getting a better price for your oats now than you were before the duties ?-How~
long have the duties been imposed? I sold English barley fourteen years ago at 4s., and there was no
duty on then. .
50919. By Mr. Longmore.-That was not the regular price ?-Yes, that was the regular price.
50920. By tlw Cltairrnan.-You cannot compare fourteen years ago with now, because agriculture had
not then reached its present pitch in the colony?-I sold oats thirteen years ago at 2s. a bushel, and that
was not a great price, but it was the price for a great part of the year.
50921. What is the price now ?-It is often 2s., but of course it has advanced now, because there
has been a failure all through the Northern Territory; and I contend that if the Northern Territory is to
be inhabited at all as a wheat-producing country we are entirely independent of all outside supplies. But
if the well is already full, it is no use pouring more water into it.
50922. Then we shall reach our wants and commence exporting ?-With the ordinary average years
we have already reached it.
50923. Then the duties would become of themselves inoperative ?-To some extent they would.
50924. To the whole extent. If the production of barley and oats were to .reach the extent that
wheat has done, should not we be independent of import altogether, and would not it give us some 'toe
export--has not the duty upon wheat become inoperative ?-I presume there is a certain staff of men kept
there to collect the duties.
50925. We are not talking of that-we are talking of how it affects you as a farmer ?-If a number
of men have to be paid, it must affect me to some extent.
50926. But that has not an effect upon you as a fat·mer ; it only affects you as it affects me, that is
11s a mPmber of the community ?~If an injustice is done to you, that does not prevent its being an injustice
if it is done to me.
50927. Is the duty upon wheat inoperative now, as far as the markets are concerned ?-Yes.
50928. When the barley and oats have reached the same position, will not these duties also become
inoperative ?-To a few only of those farmers near the coast who can produce wheat and oats and barley
much cheaper than those in the interior on account of the carriage.
50929. By Mr. Longmore.--Were you cultivating so early as 1864 ?-No, not so early as 1864 ;
I began in 1866.
50930. Do you know the price that was paid at that time for an ordinary reaping machine ?-Yes,
I do.
50931. What was it ?-Seventy pounds.
50932. What would you pay for a reaping machine now ?-That is no criterion, for this simple·
.reason--
50933. Answer the question, yes or no ?-Yes or no will not answer that question.
50934. By tl!e Ghairnwn.-Say yes or no, and then explain ?~But I cannot say yes or no.
50935. By lif.r. Longmore.-What is the price now ?-Thirty-four or thirty-five pounds.
50936. As against £70 ?-Allow me to tell you that I bought machines in 1866 and there was no
11rotecl:ive duty on, and I paid less for my machine then than I did at the present harvest. I bought a hay
rake at that time, and then I paid £5less than I can get one in :Melbourne for at the present time.
50937. By Mr. lYicintyre.--How do you explain the statement you made just now that £70 paid for
a reaping machine in 1866 and that you can get the same article now for £34 ?-They were not £70 in 1866.
50938. The time asked was 1866 when you bought the reaping machine ?-1866 or Hl67.
50939. What did you pay for it ?-Thirty pounds.
50940. Then you made a mistake in answering Mr. Longmore ?-No; Mr. Longmore asked me
what they were in 1873 and I said £70.
At the request of the Commission the Shorthand Writer read over his notes of the questions and
answers numbered from 50929 to 50936 above. ·
The Witness.-I understood the question to be, what did a reaping machine cost in 1873 and 1874.
50940A. By 1Wr. lrlcintyre.-But I put the question upon a proper footing now. What did a reaping
machine cost in 1866 ?-Thirty pounds.
50941. What does it, cost you now ?-Thirty-two pounds last harvest.
50942. Is the machine you bought in 1866 as good a machine as you buy now ?-There is certainly
·an improvement upon the last one I bought, but a number of new machines are turned out almost upon the
·same pattern as the one I bought.
50943. Then your new machine for only £2 more is not better, in real money value, than the one
;bought eighteen years ago at that price P-It is rather a better machine.
50944. Is it £2 better?-Yes, I presume it is.
50945. Then the value of the machine at that time and now is about equal ?-Yes.
.50946. Notwithstanding the amount of labour that has been employed upon that particular article
'Ei:i.u:t:re:1--Yes.
150947. By 1Jfr. Longmore.-Did you buy a new reaping machine in 1867 for £30 ?-Yes.
:50948. Whose reaping machine was it ?-Moody's-it was under £30.
i50949. By ~}fr. 1Yfunro.-Sure1y Mr. Moody must have given it to you at half-price ?-No.