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

G. G. Pierce,
ccnU"nued.
9tJi JIIay 1883.
1490
50351. What is the price of cheese in New Zealand now ?-I do not know.
50352. What is it generally ?-I think about 6c1., but I cannot say positively.
50353. What is the price of the same class of cheese here ?-7d. and Sd. I think.
50354. We are selling the same kind of cheese here at 7!d. as they sell in New Zealand at 6d. ?­
That is an approximation.
50355. And you think if the clut.y were removed the New Zealand cheese would come here and
compete with you ?--I think it would, I do not say just now.
50356. But you have not the slightest fear that you could keep all competitors out of the market if
yon tried, you know your business ?-I think it would interfere very much with my business.
50357. By .Mr. .iJilirams.-Wbere is the New Zealand cheese sent to now ?-I think they use it all
themselves now. I do not think they export much.
50358. To which colonies do you export ?-To Queensland and South Australia.
'Tlte ~m:tness withdrew.
T. Brenuon.
9Lll May 1883.
Thomas Brennan sworn and examined.
5035!). By Jlf?·, jl{irams.-Whom do you represent ?-Watson and Paterson, bacon and ham
curers.
50360. Do you deal in butter and cheese ?-Yes, largely.
. 50361. Do you support the evidence of the previous witnesses ?-Yes ; I speak with the experience
of over twenty ymtrs in this colony. If the import duty upon bacon and hams be removed, I believe it
would have the effect of glutting our market with American bacon, or the very lowest quality of English
bacon ; in fact, it was the import duty that nursed the industry to maturity, and we have completely cut
out the importation of foreign bacon.
50362. Aml now you are doing an export trade ?-And now we are doing an export trade. All
we want is a reciprocity with the other colonies.
50363. To get them to take off their duties ?-Yes.
50364. Make nse of our present position ?-Protect us from foreign countries, and have reciprocity
with the other colonies. Our climate is much more suitable for making bacon tlum Queensland, and it
looks so absurd to h1~ve an import duty upon an article from a sister colony that they cannot make themselves.
Protect us from the outside world.
50365. By the Cloavrman.-Do yon think, having reached the age of maturity as you say, that it
is necessary to nurse you further?-We want to be protected even in maturity against the invasion of
outsiders.
50366. Then you have not reached maturity yet ?-Yes, perfect matnrity.
50367. Having reached that stage of exporting an article, what reason have you for asking a continuance
of the duty ?-Because you would he competed with by a man in New York, who sends bacon to
Liverpool, has it packed there with an Irish packer's name, and sent out here as an Irish article. I sny
that the duty is necessary in my opinion.
50368. You do not show that. I am anxious to get fair evidence. You do not show the necessity
of the duty when the :fact remains that you are a large exporter of the article. You fear a thing that may
take place now just as well with the duty on as with the duty off '/-Remove the duty, and we would not
be large exporters. Other countries will supply that which we are well able to supply.
5036\:l. Then, if the duty were off, you say this morning upon oath, that your industry would suffer
-you would lose your export trade at once ?-·I say, from an experience of thirty years in the provision
trade in Ireland and here, remove the clnty and you open your ports to every needy trader that would
bypothecate his goods and flood the market. I have seen lOO and 200 tons of goods (they send tl;w rubbish
of the London markets here) sent out and sold, no matter what it fetched.
50370. Suppose the duty were lowered to a penny a pound, would not that do ?-It would be a
penny a pound inducement to people in London to send their goods here.
50371. Then 2d. has :fixed the exact happy medium which keeps the London article out '?-We c1o
not wish to touch the law of the country which is protective, and another thing, I do not see that 2s. a
head upon pigs eoming here does the least to encourage the growth of pigs in the colony, for we cannot get
a supply; ¥Yhen there are not sufficient pigs here, then we have to purchase in other colonies. .
50372. If the farmers say that the 2s. a head encourages the growth of the article, what would you
say then ?-They might speak very truthfully from their own standpoint not from ours.
50373. By 111-r. Longliwre.-When there is 2d. a lb. duty upon the article we export, does it do any
harm to have that upon the Statute Book ?-No, not to our iuclustrv, it is beneficial to it in fact. I
remember twenty years ago going rouml to sell bacon, and they would i10t look upon it because it had not
" Sin clair" or "Coey" or "Varey,'' &c., upon its back. I wore my shoes and broke my health trying to introduce
this industry.
50374. Have you learned iu your business, a,t any time, that merchants trying to establish a trade
and to injure the industries of r" country, will submit to a loss upon an article for a long time so as to ruin
the producer ?-They clicl do it for many years till they were tired of it. For many years wholesale
merchants paid more for tl1e imported article than they could purchase the colonial for, thereby evidencing
their sympathy with and their preference for the imported article.
50375. Do you think 2d. a lb. would prevent the like of that ?-Of course it would, it is a handicap
to keep them out. It keeps away unfair competiton. You know, as well as I do, that at home there are
needy men with good:3 in their warehouses, they send them out here to get money in a,dvance to keep the
bailiff from the door. They do not care wlwt it sells for in time, but it goes.
50376. Then from your evidence I gather tbat the 2d. a lb. upon the article now upon the Statute
Book does not injure anybody ?-·I do not think so. ,
50377. And that it has the effect of keeping out these importations that would place us eventually
in the hands of the importers ?-Yes, and it has created a market for our pigs. Hundreds of thousands a
year are paid to the fhrmers for the pigs thnt ent up the debris of the kitchen and the farm-house, and that
cost them nothing.
The ~oitness witlld1·ew.