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

igard to dressing rice in bond, you get 2s. a cental differential duty I see?-Yes.
49671. What does it cost you to dress it ?-The labour?
49672. Yes ?-I shouM say from £1 to 30s.
49673. Dressing, I suppose, just means putting it through the mill ?-No, it means a lot m'ore than
that. It goes through machineq. .
49674. To get this differential duty, all you require is to put it tht·ough the mill, is it not ?-You have
to dress it. It goes into the mili undresseu tmcl comes out dressed, and that entitles you to the clifferential
duty of 2s.
4967 5. How much do you say it costs to dress rice ?-'I'hat depends upon the machinery you have.
49676. How much does it cost you to dress a ton of rice ?-About £1 to 30s.
49677. And you get £4 differential duty ?-No, £2.
49678. Then you made a very good thing by this (h·essing ?-We clo not chmge that to our customers ;
they get the benefit of it.
49679. But the revenue loses it ?-That was the intention as far as I uuclerstood-I had a good deal to
do with it at the time-to encourage the dressing of rice in the colonies.
49680. How many hands do you employ in dressing rice ?-I could not very well separate them-say
five altogether.
49681. By l!ir.1ltlcintyre.-What is the value per pound of oatmeal ?-I assure you it is too cheap
altogether, it is less than 2d. a pound.
49682. And the duty upon it is 6s. per cental-uearly
this colony.
· 49683. Yes but there is?-V cry little.
a pound ?-Yes, but no oatmeal comes into
49684. There was £510 revenue last year ?-I do not know who uses it.
49685. Then our porridge costs us ~d. a pound more indeed it does not. Your porridge costs
you considerably less than it costs us to produce it.
49686. Ancl ~cl. a lb. is on it ?-That is nothing to us; we can compete in oatmeal with all the world.
49687. Then, if the duty were taken off oats, you would not object to take it off oatmeal ?-Yes,
decidedly I should ; how could we get on then ? *
49688. The oats are your raw rmtterial, and you would get any quantity of it ?-I do not object if
you take it off the oat to leave it on the oatmeal.
49689. Suppose we could not maoage to succeed in getting that clone, would you object to a 'reasonable
reduction of the duty charged at present; do not you admit that Jilcl. a lb. is excessive ?-No, I do not;
it does not interfere with us.
49690. There was more duty coming in when you paid only 3s. a cental than now when you pay
6s. ?-But there are a great many more producers of the article now.
49691. Your oatmeal, fresh upon the spot, would sell better than tl1e imported article ?-Yes.
49692. You uo not require to brand yom oatmeal, do you?-Yes, we put our own name in print.
49693 .. This is the Health Act, section 39. I presume these are the words that necessitate your
branding your mustard :-"Any article of food enclosed in or hearing any cover, capsule, wrapper, labelled
seal, or euclosme, or imprint, or mark by which such article is made to represent that which it is not.'' Is
that the reason, because there is nothing in tl1is to enforce the exact language you use ?-No, we have to
conform to the Act by saying that "There are other wholesome ingredients." ·
49694. Then, as a matter of fact, this is not mustard that you have here ?-It is not all mustard,
but it is what is known in the trade and everywhere as mustanl.
49695. Would not it do to call it a "Whisky blend" ?-It might do if it were a whisky.
49696. Have you anything fnrther to add ?-No.
49697. By the Gfwirman.-~Those are the only items you wish to speak about ?-That is all. In
speaking about mustard a little while ago, probably I have ereated the impression in the mind of the Commission
that we do not manufacture genuine mustard, but we also manufacture genuine, as well as the
other qualities.
'l'he witness vJitAclrew.
Leonard Parsons,
8th May l8B3.
Leonard Parsons sworn and examined.
49698. By the Clu:tvnnctn.-·where is your place of bnsines '?-Bomke-street.
,!9699. How long has it been established ?~We have been in business about twenty years.
49700. How many hands do you employ?-Thirty.
49701. vve have a return here, twenty-five-is that correct?-Thirty now.
49702. What are the principal lines that you manufacture ?-Oatmeal, rice, coffee, I should like to
speak of.
49703. You heard the evidence of the previous witness upon the question of oats and oatmeal, do
you agree with that ?-I think we should have the duty off oats altogether. We all have a bond, and
manufacture under the su1Jervision of an officer, and I do not see why we should not be a.llowed to have all
the oats free, because we cannot get oats in the colony suitable J'or oatmeal, or very few indeed. They are
all full of blacks and tares, and when you get your porridge in the morning it is full of seeds and blacks,
and there are rows every day. I approve of it in reference to starch and rice, and we .do not see why it
cannot be done in oatmeal. ·
.;;;. On revising his evidettce t11e witness desired to withdraw this answer rt~cl to substitute the word "JS\;."