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

1421
48060. Would the public get the benefit of the reduction in the cost of the manufactured
article?-You muy depend the local competition would soon give the public the benefit of it.
48061. What per cent. does the duty upon sugar bear to the cost of sugar. The duty is £3 a
ton, is it not ?-Yes.
48062. What is the value of sugar ?-From £30 to £35 a ton, I think.
48063. It is a little less than 10 per cent. ?-Yes.
48064. If that 10 per cent. upon the cost of sugar were removed by bringing Queensland sugar free
the public would get the advantage of that reduction in cost, would it not ?-I feel sure they would.
48065. By what means ?-That one house would go and offer the goods at a less price, and of
course if one does that we must all do it.
48066. Would you, as a local manufacturer, have any objection to the passing of a clause in the
Customs Act that local manufacturers of all descriptions should be compelled to brand their own goods, so
that the public may know that they are buying colonial things, and not buy colonial things under the
supposition they are imported ?-Certainly, I would approve of that. I think it is a very necessary clause.
48067. Does your trade suffer at all from the prejudice of the public against colonial-made things?
-I do not think so, but I have often known other people's inferior goods put into our tins.
48068. Other colonial people?-Yes, but we do not think that is anything.
48069. Your own industry, that is your own personal industry, speaking for your own branch alone,
does not suffer from a prejudice against colonial-made confectionery ?-No.
48070. It is past that stage ?-Yes.
48071. Did you experience any prejudice at first ?-I do not think so.
48072. Have you anything else you wish to state to the Commission ?-No, I do not think so.
48073. By Mr .. Mclnt,yre.-Will you explain to the Commission about the 50s. for dried, and 40s.
for boiled, less 10 per cent. You say you used to sell at a loss, and now you say it is 50s. and 60s., and yet
you say before the duty you sold for lOd., and now you sell for 6!d. I do not understand that ?-No, it
is the competition and fighting in the trade that brought down the prices, and we were losing money. There
is a gentleman now in the room who lost a considerable amount of money.
48074. That was before the duty was put on ?-No, that was the low prices.
48075. Which are the low prices ?-The 40s. and 50s.
48076. Cannot you give us the date or near it?-Yes, certainly.
48077. What time was it ?-I must go back to the year 1880.
48078. Explain this, your evidence shows that taking the hundredweight rate you are selling clearer
than you were then, and you say now you are selling at 6!ll. a pound ?-Yes, at 60s. a cwt.
48079. And formerly you sold at lOd.?-Yes, before the duty was put on.
48080. I cannot understand that. Will you supply the Commission with the particulars about that?
-Yes, certainly.*
48081. Can you tell us the price of sugar at that time ?-My memory does not furnish me with it.
48082, Will you furnish that too ?-Yes.t
48083. Is not the lemon largely grown in the country ?-In Sydney.
48084. Is it not grown in this country ?-Only a few, quite a trifle.
48085. Lemons are growing here ?-Yes.
48086. And it is a good country fOT them ?-Yes, but they have a good market. It would not pay
to give more than !Os. a case at the outside, and they get £1 by sending them to San Francisco.
48087. I spoke of ours ?-And Sydney.
48088. But ours?-We could use them all in a week.
48089. Is the 2d. no encouragement to persons producing lemons ?-Yes, it is, and that is why I
am surprised more is not grown.
48090. You wish to keep the 2d. a pound upon your lollypops, and you do not wish the lemon
grower to have 2d. a pound upon lemons ?-They cannot produce enough.
48091. Do not almonds grow very largely in Victoria ?-We can never get any. A few in the
gardens; but what are not consumed privately are sold to the small shops.
48092. They are grown very largely in Victoria, smely ?-We should like to buy them if we could.
We never bought any here ; there are none for sale. They are all sold in the shell.
48093. Are you sure it is not prejudice about the Victorian-grown article ?-No. I am a Victorian,
I have been out here thirty years.
48094. And you never tried to use Victorian almonds ?-If we could get them we would.
48095. Why do not you buy them in the shell ?-They would not pay. There is a very great
demand here for almonds in the shell.
48096. Do not you think that the 2d. a pound, which applies to almonds in the shell as well as
almonds shelled, is an encouragement to the continuance of the production of that article ?-But they do
not produce them. It is like the lemons, we cannot get lemons.
48097. But they do grow them largely. Every other garden has its almond trees in it ?-Yes; I
have four or five, but my children eat them all.
48098. Then the principle of protection does not apply to this at all. You want your raw material
free, but your raw material is other people's actual product. Why should not they have the same
encouragement as you have, 2d. a pound. They have not come up to your point yet, but by-and-by they
may probably. You want this 2d. a pound, it is useful to you, is it not ?-Certainly.
48099. And you would not be selfish enough to wish it taken off fruit ?-It would enable
confectioners and others to make their articles cheaper.
48100. But you would take away from the producer of the article that protection that you yourself
largely want. Now how did you get along in lmsiness before the duty was imposed at all ?-Used to work
like a nigger from fou; o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night.
48101-2. And now you go about like a gentleman, doing nothing, and let a hired workina-man
do your work ?-But it gives them plenty to do.
"'
-~ On revising his evidence the witness ad,led that ulocal competition was greater, and the increase in local manufacturer was ve,J.'y great after the
duty was put on.,
t On revising his evldence the witness added that the price w•s from £30 to £40.
Henry Burrows,
continued,
lst M•y 1883.