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

,J. Q. Johnson,
' contlnued,
,9tb. May 1883,
1484
50151. A case holding a bushel or a reputed bushel ?-Cases and bushels. This is the first year we
have had cases made, on account of the complaint from New Zealand of the use of orange cases, for Victorian
,fruit, they are determined they will not have them, therefore this year we are having proper cases
made for apples.
50152. Cases to hold a bushel ?-Cases to hold a bushel.
50153. And you have exported from 8,000 to 10,000 bushels of different sorts of fruit grown here?
-Yes.
50154. I understood you to say that this is Victorian fruit absolutely ?-I say absolutely of Vic·
torian fruit, there is no hesitation about it.
150155. You do not get any drawback for it ?-No we have hardly come down to that.
150156. You are of opinion that we have now come, in the colony, to that point that wc produce
more fruit than we consume ?-No question about it.
50157. Then how do you account for such a large importation of fruit going on. Green fruit in 1881
gave £6,999 ?-That would chiefly arise from oranges. Last season we may have imported somewhere
about 6,000 cases of apples, but that was about all we did last year, and the remainder would be oranges.
Our own importation of oranges last year was about 37,000 cases, but we exported a great many of those
again.
50158. To where ?-·To Adelaide and New Zealand.
50159. They come from Sydney ?-Yes.
50160. Do you get a drawback for them ?-No, we ship t_hem in bond.
50161. Which part of the colony do you get your fruit from mostly?-:M:osHy around Melbourne,
within twelve or fourteen miles of Melbourne ; we have received from the neighbourhood of Geelong 'and
Sandhurst, the railway returns would show that many thousands of cases have been sent from Sandhurst
this year.
50162. And now we have reached this point that we can look forward to be continual exporters of
fruit ?-Yes, no doubt whatever.
50163. Have you anything else to say ?-Yes, I should like to suggest something about dates
and dried fruit. Our firm is considerably interested in them. We consider the duty very excessive-
2d. a lb.
50164. Is that an article that can be grown in the Colony ?-Certainly not.
50165. Has it been tried, do you know ?-I know of a date palm or two a foot or two high, but of ,
course they bear no fruit.
50166. It is not a success ?-It is not a success.
50167. Is it a fair article for revenue purposes ?-Certainly it is, but I think the duty is excessive,
and defeats its own object.
50168. In what way ?-Prior to the 2d. a lb. we used to have very large importations of mat elates,
their original cost being from £8 10s. to £9 in Bombay, upon which there is a duty of 2d. a lb .. Of course
that trade is completely settled. If you look through the returns of last year you will find that the revenue
from dates is exceedingly small.
50169. Then the valne of this article is about 1d. a lb.?-I think if the dnty was 1d. a lb. you
would have a much larger revenue. I have known myself Lhe time when I have purchased 35 tons of mat
dates, now I never buy so much as five tons.
50170. You think the article would come in if the duty were reduced ?-It would.
50171. The duty in Sydney is 1d. a lb.-Yes.
50172. And it would come in if that were the duty here ?-Yes, I think it is a fair article of
revenue.
50173. Would the revenue be largely increased ?-I am sure it would be largely increased.
5017·1. By the Hon. Mr. Lm·imez·.-Would there be any practical difficulty in levying a duty upon
green fmits by weight instead of by measure ?-I think there would he every difficulty. You must unpack
almost every case to know, because the weight depends upon the density of the apple.
1501715. Knowing the weight of the packages, could not you tare them ?-You could get at them,
hut it would not he an accurate knowledge.
50176. You are aware that there is the same variety in the weight of bushels as applied to grain
that there is as applied to fruit ?-I do not think so wide.
50177. And in ord.er to get over the anomalies there they went to the cental, and imposed the duty
upon the 100 lbs.?-There you have a uniform package, the sack, with a recognised tare to it. Now if the
cases are made of green timber, the weight would be very much more, though of the same thickness of
timber, than it would be if the timber had been drying for some time, and, if I mistake not, the question at
home upon the green fruits is not the question of weight, that is only a question that has crept in here with
11 view of passing off 40 lbs. as a bushel, that is all that it is, one of those little pious frauds that creep into
business, that is all.
50178. Could not you get ut the tare in the same way as you do with the dried fruits, like currants?
-I do not think you could, besides the value is not so much as to make it worth while. }