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

1439
people in the country ?-I think there would be no difficulty in bringing down a hundred men from Ballarat John A •.Kilchen,
or Sandhurst who are always using those candles, to show that they are quite equal to the imported.
2n~ 0 ~f~:'fss3.
48690. The Commission took the evidence and it was published every day in the local press, and
the Commission were quite willing to receive evidence from such men and they did not come ?-I may say
that Mr. Clal'k, the chemist to the Apollo Company, can speak perhaps more confidently than myself (he is
in the room) as to the melting point of those things, and their being properly decomposed.
48691. By the Cltairman.-Have you anything further that you wish to add to the evidence you
have given ?-I do not think so.
48692. Is there any article that you use in your industry that pays duty that the duty might be
removed from ?-No, I think not.
The witness withdrew.
The Honorable Thomas Loader, sworn and examined.
48693. By the Chairman.-You are the secretary or manager of the Apollo Candle Company?- TbeHonora.ble
Managing director
• , 2nd May 1883.
48694. When was your company established ?-Somewhere about ten years ago; about 1873.
48695. Situated in Footscray, is it not?-Yes.
48696. How many hands have you employed there now ?-About 120 or 130, between 100 and 200
we generally have; we are rather short-handed just now.
48697. That does not include the outside work ; that is the people in the factory itself ?-That is
the whole number we employ.
48698. Do you manufacture anything but candles ?-Soap, glycerine, and lubricating oils.
48699. Do you take apprentices ?-No.
48700. Do you begin to pay wages from the first?-"\Ve pay wages from the first.
48701. Have you any difficulty in getting lads ?-Occasionally ; but not as a rule. I should not say
we have any difficulty.
48702. What wages do you begin with now ?-We commence at 10s. for boys and girls, and 12s.
and up to 34s. for labour.
48703. You have some females employed ?-Yes.
48704. They commence at 10s., and when they get to be journeymen, do they get wages weekly, or
are they employed piece-work ?-Most.ly weekly wages, very few men are upon piece-work.
48705. What can they earn a week when they are full journeymen-thoroughly masters of their
business ?-Laborers from 33s. to 36s. The other men, press men and others, earn up to £2.
48706. Your industry was established after the last alteration 1n the duty upon candles ?-Yes.
48707. The second penny was put on in 1871, and your industry was established in 1873 ?-It
never would have been established except for it.
48708. It was established in consequence of the duty ?-No doubt.
48709. Now that you have reached your present stage of perfection, could you carry on if the duty
were removed ?-Not at present, certainly.
48710. Would yon be able to earry on if the duty were reduced to the original penny ?-Certainly
not, at present.
48711. You say "not at present"-do you wish to infer by that, that in a few years time you
might be iu that position ?-I think so ; I hope so. Whoever has the management of this business in a
few years time, I imagine, would be able to do without so hea,vy a duty as at present, but certainly not
now; the industry is not yet sufficiently acclimatised and established. Up to the present time, the company
I represent has had nothing but one struggle of troubles and difficulties to work against the whole of
the time.
48712. And you are not quite through them yet ?-No, indeed, we are not.
48713. Do you do an export trade?-We have a branch establishment in Sydney to which we
export a certain quantity of preparecl tallow and distilled stearine. We have done so until lately.
48714. And then you manufacture the stearine into candles, in Sydney?-Yes.
48715. Have not they lately stopped that?-Yes, within the last six weeks they have imposed a duty
of Id. a pound which has stopped us sending stuff there.
48716. By lYir. Grimwade.-A duty upon crude stearine ?-A. duty upon crude stearine.
48717. By the Cl!airman.-They have a duty of 1d. a pound upon eandles, have they not?­
Yes.
.48718. And now they have made a departmental regulation which reckons a case of stearine to be
a box of candles ?-Yes.
48719. And charge you 1d. a pound upon it ?-That is exactly it.
48720. And that prevents you from manufacturing them in Sydney, does it not ?-Yes, at present,
48721. And that would stop your export trade then ?-It will to some extent.
48722. Have you any information to give to the Commission about the relative qualities of the
colonial candle and the imported. Did you hear the evidence of Mr. Kitchen upon that point?-I did not.
But the colonial eanclle, the pure animal stearine candle, made by the local factories, is a better candle than
the majority of European candles that come to this market, beeause it is manufactured from animal stearine,
and many of the importecl candles are manufactured from il~ferior greases, vegetable greases and others.
48723. Mr. Kitchen informed the Commission that the price of colonial candles has always to be
about id. a pound lower than the price of the imported ?-That_is so.
4872±. Of the same quality ?-That is so.
48725. That is your experience ?-Yes, that is in consequence of the prejudice of the people here in
favour of imported candles.
48726. The prices Mr. Kitchen gave us as ranging to-day (which he told U!J were exceptionally
high on account, principally, of the increase in the price of tallow) are 9.g.d. to 9~d. for colonial, and lOd. to
lO!d. for imported ?-Just so. ·
48727. So that though the duty is 2d. the enhancement in price over the imported is only ld. ?­
That is so.
Thomas Loo.der,