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

1405
475±9. Do yon mean to say it takes six months to send home an on1er for labels ?-Tu send home
and get them out.
47550. You say the colonittl printers are not equo1 to printing the labels for your cigar boxes 7-
They are not ; they are not quick enough; but I do not urge the taking off of the duty from cigar boxes.
The witness wit!td1·ew.
.:UhC'd Un.rt,
coutinued,
26th Aprill8SJ.
Edgar Arton Baskerville sworn and examined.
47551. By t!te a !tairrnan.-"What are you ?-Tobacconist. E.A. Bu.siwrville
9 ] f 26th Allrill883,
4755 ... In what way does t1e Tariff upon the article o tobacco affect yom business as a retailer of
tobacco ?-I think it has improved it, rather than not.
47553. Improved it ?-Improved it as far as I am coucerned, and I dare say it has improved it with
all the tobacconists.
47554. Do not speak for anyone else. Tell ns as far as you are concerneJ ?-It has improv!ld it as
:far as I am concerned.
47555. Iu what respect-in the amount of business doue ?--In the amount of business cloue.
Naturally before the duty there were larger stocks held by people in small w:1ys of business. Those people
do not hold that stock now, and, consequently, those who do not hold the stock do not do the tratle. I
understilm1 it is more difficult now to hold a stock than it was before, because, previous to the duty going
on, grocers aud even.fruit shops would buy five and even ten boxes. I know that, because I have sold it
to them-even the smallest men.
4755G. How many do the same people buy ?-They buy two pounds now, or :five pound;;.
47557. From the factories ?-No, from me.
47558. I thought you were a retail tobacconist yourself?-Yes, so I am, but it throws that class of
business now more into my hands and more into the hands of people who hold a stock. If a man bought
five boxes of tobacco previous to the duty, the only thing he hacl to do was, to give a bill of four or five
months, and he got it into his place without any cash outlay, and he sold it. If he was a cheap gyoeer he
sold it for immediate purposes, and raised the wind at cost price and turned it into immediate cnsh, and
dealt in butter and eggs with the money. He rose the wind upon the sales something considerably, nncl it
paid him in lots of cases, ancl in other cases it clid not pay him, ancl he forgot to pay for it.
47559. I ditlnot ask you how the grocer dicl ?-Now, those men have to pay £4 a box dnty, they
tlo not buy it. They buy ten pounds.
475GO. Without going into the reasons, the fact remains, that you sell now to grocers smn,ller
quantities than you sold before ?-Yes.
47561. In any other way has the Tariff benefited you ?-No, I clo not know it. Of course, it
takes a larger capital to work the business.
475G2. That is rather against you tlmn for you ?-It is. But then you get the spontaneous trade
that comes to you.
47563. Is there any alteration in the Tariff you wish to propose ?-No. I may say if you take
sixpence off the imported article, it would not reduce the price to the consumer a half-penny.
475G4. Will you explain to the Commission how that is?-Yes ; buying Golden Eagle, or any of
the first-class light aromatic tobaccoes, at the very lowest price, they will cost, d11ty paid, 5s., 2s., aud 3s.
the duty, or ls. lld.-very close upon it-that costs fivepence. I sell that for sixpence.
47565. What do you mean by" that costs fivepence" ?-Any of those bramls Y>'hieh are twelve to
the pound, they cost fivepence per plug, and we sell them at sixpence, and we get :fifteen per eent., a less
profit than anybody else in any other trade gets. A smaller profit than anyone in any other tmde gets.
47566. You buy at fivepence and sell for sixpence ?-Yes, and that is buying i1~ large quantities,
and buying well.
47567. And if you paid fourpence half-penny, you would still charge sixpence ?-Yes.
. 47568. Then the result of taking off the Tarlff would be merely to put sixpence a pound into the
pockets of the tradesmen like yourself'l-,Just so.
47569. Do you deal in cigars ?-Yes.
47570. Does the Tariff upon cigars suit you?-Yes; the cigars are o£ much better quality uow the
excise duty is on than they were before. Before, the cigars were of inferiol' quality. Tbc small
manufacturers used to turn them out, and the people used to bny cigars at I used to sell them ::.t
or nine shillings a box, the same price as I now ~ell at, though I buy at £4. The cheapest article I can
now huy-tl1e £4 a thousand-I sell that article for nine shillings a box, and when I gave £2 for them, I
sold them at uine shillings a box, and if the i.luty was takeu off cigars it would not benefit anybody but the
retailer.
47571. By llfr. Jrlcintyre.-Then the whole benefit your business has receivetl from the Tariff has
been that it has squelched the small dealers ?-It has tlirown the trade into the proper legitimate channel.
Why should the gt·ocers--
47572. We do not inquire into that. Personally I do not see why a milkman should not sell a cigar
instead of you, but I only want your evidence ?-It throws the business into the hands of holders or a
la1·ger stock.
·17573. Then you think the business of the colony shcmld be only done by a few?-No.
47574. Then what do you mean by that statement ?-I know that, so far as tobacco and cig·ars go,
the larger they are the better the article.
47575. Does that ?,pply to the retnil business ?-We have a certain fixed price. A man comes in
and asks for a twopenny or threepenny cig:1r. Now, if I buy an a::-ticle for £2 that will smoke, I can sell
that for twopence, or someone else will if I cannot. But if I pay £4 for an article, I must still sell it for
twopence. It is not goocl to get threepence, for I maintain that the cigars now in :Melbourne are
of much better quality than they vvore before.
47576. Do you attribute that t.o the dnty?-Yes.
47577. vVhy ?-The small makers use the lowest quality of leaf entirely.
47578. You do not know that-you me not a maker ?-I have been acquainted with the trade very
intimately. I bought cigars for £2 before the duty, nncl the man I bought from then is now manager for