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

1461
49367. I understand that you show these samples of flour in ordel' to prove the difference in the
value and the fineness of the flour manufactured by the patent machinery of which you speak ?-Yes.
49368. And flom made by the ordinary millstones ?-Yes.
49369. I have numbered the samples No. 1, No. '2, and No. 3. Ne. 1, you say, is the result of the
patent machinery, awl Nos. 2 and 3 are the samples from the ortlinary machinery?-Yes.
49370. What is the difference in the value of these different flours ?-The difference in the value of
the patent flour from America is 4s. a bag in London. From Italy and Buda-Pesth, where they originally
introduced the roller mills, there is a difference of 9s. a sack. Before they star~ed this patent machinery
their flour commanded in London the ordinary price.
4D371. You have this machinery in use now ?-Yes.
49372. Have you experienced the value of the enhanced value ?-Yes.
49373, And you object, I understand, to the duty which you had to pay upon this machine?-Yes,
2H per cent.
49374. What was the cost of the machinery you imported ?-It costs altogether upwarLls of £4,000
before it started.
49375. About £4,000 ?-Upwards of £A,OOO.
4937G. You tell us this is a patent ?-It is not a patent in the colony, it is a patent in Hungary.
49377. The patent (loes not extend to this country ?-The patent does not extend t.o this country.
49378. Then if we introduce a regulation by which all patent machinery should be admitted free, it
would not touch this case ?-It is patent where it is exported from, but it is not a patent here.
4\}379. Then under a regulation by which all patent machinery, for whatever purpose it is made
and whatever trade used, it should be admitted free, this would come in free ?-I expect iL would.
49380. Have you anything further to add ?-I have this to add, tlmt we have to compete with the
neighbouring colonies. Everything we handle in our mill is taxed. Onr belts are taxed, which eomes to a
large qmmtity of money. Our cornsacks are heavily taxed, all our macl1inery, in fact everythiug we touch
is taxed. Across the Border, in New South \Vales, or South Australia, everything comes in free, bags are
half the mouev.
4938l:Not in New South Wales, are the same there?-Yes, but they are half in South
Australia, and machinery comes in free.
49382. Not rnachinery in South Australia ?-It is
Now we have all this to contend with, which is very unjust
markets with them.
small if anything, but in Sydney it is free.
contend, because we have to compete in the
49383. Which markets ?-Sydney ami Queensland ; we send flour to all those markets.
49384. Are you able to compete with them there successfully to any exten~ ?-We have to compete
with them ; but om· protits, as manufacturers, must be reduced to that extent.
49385. Can you give the Commission any statement of the portion of your outlay upon t,_hese articles
that you have enumerated, and which pay duty-what proportion does it bear to the value of your yearly
out~put ?-I have not gone into the thing so minutely as that.
49386. You see, that in order for us to come to an opinion as to how far these taxes are a burden
upon you, and reduce your profits, it is neeessary for us to know what is the value of your year's business,
and what is the value of the outlay upon these articles-for instance, what does oil co;;t ?-Oil costs about a
couple of pounds a week.
49387. And the duty is 20 per cent. upon it, is it not ?-About 20 per cent.
Mr. Drysdale.-Twelve and a half per cent.
The fFttness.-Theu there is our bagging. We use about a thousand ba.gs a week. We pay Is. net,
and the Adelaide people pay 6d.
49388. You would hn.ve to pay Is. in New South Wales, the same as here ?-Yes ; but the Adelaide
people have that advantage. If I use a thousand bags of wheat they have the aclvant!tge of paying only
half what I pay.
49389. You do an export trade ?-Yes.
49390. Do you find any difficulty in dealing with the Customs under the drawback regulations?­
We get no drawback.
49391. You manipulate in bond, of course ?-Yes ; the oatmeal is sent away in bond, and flour is
upon the free list.
- 49392. So you have no trouble in that ?-We have no trouble in that whatever.
49393. The tariff then cloes not interfere with yom· export trade, more than to rednce certain
amounts of profit to you in the direction you spoke of?-Yes.
49394. By .11fT. Bosisto.-In reference to a statement made here the other clay, about pollard or
sharps, does the patent process make pollard or slmrps of a quality that would make ordinary ship's
biscuits ?-I may tell you that the millers of Melbourne are ahead of the millers in the neighbouring
colonies. 1 suppose they are more energetic men. Five years >tgo I was in London, aml I importecl a
purifier, as they call it. When we m!l.ke pollarcl we put it into the purifier, and it takes away all the light
fluffy kernel f1·om it, and leaves nothing but the pure wheat, aml it makes flour equal to the first wheat,
that is the reason there is none to sell in the colony. Vife have now nearly all got purifiers, and we convert
it into flom.
49395. So in point of fact that kind of pollard will not do for biscuit bakers?-We find it more
profitable to make it into flour than to sell it to the biscuit bakers. Our improved machinery has done
away with that kind of pollard or nearly so.
49396. By the Hon. J.Wr. Lorimer.-Theu if the duty were abolished upon pollard it woulLl not
injnre the millers ?-Not a bit.
49397. You have no objection ?-The millers are not frightened of anything of that kind.
49398. As to the competition in which you are at a disadva.ntage in foreign mm·kets, I think in
answer to the Chairman you simply talked about Sydney ?-I say Sycln13y and Queensland.
49399. You export flour to London also, do not you ?-Yes.
49400. It will be the largest market I suppose in the future ?-Yes, I suppose it will.
49401. So that this h:J.ndicapping by a duty puts you at a clisadv:J.ntage in competing with South
Australia at I"onclon ?-Yes, ~mcl it also keeps the patent mnchines out· of the colony ; you can put your
Da.vhl Oibson 1
conliJlued,
Stll May 1883,