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

1462
David Gibson,
contt'nued,
8th May 1883,
hand upon them. No mill furnisher will lay out £25,000 upon those things and put them into his yard.
If you want them you must go to Europe for them instead of going next door.
49402. Then you want the removal of these duties to enable you to compete with other colonies
in foreign markets ?-Yes, to enable us to compete with other colonies in foreign markets; also that the
millers of the colony may use them and enhance the value of the article. If we can enhance the value of
flour 4s. a sack, why not let us do it; if we enhance it, the farmers and all the producers in the colony
are interested in it, for they would get the larger price for their produce.
49403. Is the Victorian wheat in all respects as good for flour as the South .Australian wheat ?­
I think not. I think the South .Australian wheat has more gluten and saccharine matter than the wheat
grown upon the plains here, but our wheat is magnificent.·
49404. Then they have some advantage over you in the quality of the wheat ?-They have some
advantage over us.
49/1,05. Do you ever import South .Australian wheat to mix P-We cannot import it now.
49406. If the duty were off would you do it? -I think not, for, as a rule, we are 2d. a bushel under
them.
·19407. By Jlh. JYJaintyre.-Is the flour marked No. 1 here a superior article to Nos. 2 and 3 ?-
Yes.
49"108. For general consumption ?-Yes, for anything.
49409. By having this class of machinery you give to the consumers and eaters of bread in the
colony a better article ?-We should give the consumers a better article. It is freed from foreign matter,
dirt, or ground up bran.
49410. It is a finer flour in every respect ?-Yes.
49411. Is there a kind of grit in No. 3, particularly as compared with No. 1; is there anything
particular ?-It is rougher ground.
49412. What is the particular point in the new machinery. Is that sample made from the same
wheat?-Yes, it is made from the same wheat. .A wheat berry is a very fine thing, it is all full of fine
~ells, and it is bound up, as it were, in a net. When you have split the wheat berry and take a powerful
Inicroscope, you see all the cells. The new machinery does not break up the iine glutinous matter, it just
chips it asunder. In the other old process of grinding you broke up the cells which discoloured the :flour,
and deteriorated it as :flour to a great extent more than anyone can understand, who does not look into it.
49413. You have this class of machinery at present in use?-Yes.
49414. Would you require more than you have now ?-I would be the better of some more.
49415. For the n1tnre you are speaking ?-I should like to try back for the past if I could, and for
the future also, though I do not speak personally for myself alone, I speak for the colony and what would
benefit it.
49416. Could not this elass of machinery be made in the colony ?-No; they have not got the way
of making it. .
49417. Have you ever tried ?-It is made of chilled iron, and these people of Buda-Pesth have
been working for sixty years before they got it to this point, and they have lost thousands of pounds in
doing it.
49418. And if you get these in, you say the consumer will save more ?-They will get a better
quality of flour.
49419. Should we get a better 2lb.loaf?-Yes, you will, and it will have more nourishing qualities
iri it.
You would have a quality worth one and a half times the other.
49420. You say the people will benefit by this ?-Yes.
49421. It is more wholesome and a better article ?-It is more wholesome and a better article.
49422. By tl~e Chawnu~n.-Have you anything further to add ?-Nothing further.
The witness withdrew.
I
I,
Thomas Brunton sworn ancl examined.
ThOmasBrunton, 49423. By t!.e Chairman.-What are you ?-Miller.
8th May !883. 49424. Where is your Inill situated ?-Corner of Spencer and Little Flinders-streets.
49425. How long have you been established as a miller in Melbourne ?-About twelve years.
49426. What is the number of hands you have employed, it is returned as 42-is that the number
now ?-Yes, I suppose so.
49427. You have heard part of the evidence, at any rate, of the previous witness, have you not?
-Yes.
49428. Do you agree with his evidence as far as you have heard it ?-I clo not know, it was rather
conflicting, I thought, in reference to the quality of flour. It is a very debatable point. You find the
medical men in England condemning this fine-dressed :flour altogether. From a sanitary point o:f view
I think it is a mistake, this patent :flour, and I disagree with Mr. Gibson in saying that it fetches 4s., much
less 9s., a sack, more than the common :flour does.
49429. What is the difference in the value according to your experience ?-I do not think this fine
patent flour is usecl anywhere except in London, and the wealthy towns in England amongst a comparatively
limited few, because in the population of London there is nine-tenths poor people who want a fine big
loaf, and a cheap one. This is used for pastry and rolls.. .Ancl every mail we are getting worcl that the
.Americans and the Hungarians are going in for the straight grade. "\Vhat Mr. Gibson says about this fine
quality is very creditable to him as a miller, but that flour is not much used.
49430. By "straight grade" you mean the whole corn ground up ?-No. Yon understand there
are :firsts, and seconds, and thirds there-[7ifen·ing to the samples upon the table J. 'What is done is to mix
them all together, and that makes an average quality of a sack of flour called a straight grade.
49431. Though there are three s:1mples here, one only is from the fine machinery, and two of them
are from the oi·clinary mode of milling ?-I was not aware of that.
49432. Have you any alteration in the tariff to propose ?-I agree with Mr. Gibson in every sense
as to the desirability of taking: off the duty from patent machinery. No doubt that milling, till the last
few years, was the saxue as it has been since the time of Pharaoh. But now a completely new proces;;; h&s