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

1495
50498. In what way ?-Something similar to the other cereals.
50499. But do not you realize the fact that it is in exactly the opposite position to all those other
cereals. vYe have an enormous quantity of wheat, more than we want to use, which we 'Yant to export,
and none of the other cereals have as yet reached that point at all ?-So far as Victoria is concerned, I ilo
not think we have an abuncbnce of it. vVe im1'ort it from other districts.
50500. Have no1; t1bundance of what ?-Wheat.
50501. Yes, we have. None comes at all in except a little for seed, and so on, but we have 3,000,000
bushels to export ?-I did not know tlmt. I have not paid much attention to it, not growing it.
50502. As a matter of fact the price of wheat is here mled by the price growers get outside the
colony ?-I do not pay much attention to that, not growing wheat.
50503. Personally you do not object to the removal of the duty upon wheat?-No.
50504. Might the duty upon potatoes be removed?-I clo not think so, New Zealand could swamp us
in that as well as in the grains.
50505. Have you any alteration in the tariff to propose at all ?-I clo not think I have any alteration
worth mentioning.
50506. There has been a great deal of evidence given to the Commission, and a great deal said in
the press in relation to the question of malting in bond. Are you, as a grower of barley, opposed to that
proposal or in favour of it ?-I am opposed to it.
50507. Will you state to the Commission upon what ground ?-We might as well allow the English
barley to come in ns the malting in bond. I fail to see the clifterence that it would mnke.
50508. Are you under the impression that the proposal to allow Melbourne maltsters to malt in bond
is for the purpose of disposing of the malt after it is made in the colony of Victoria ?-As long as it is
disposed of in the colony.
50509. But are you under the impression that the proposal to nllow Melbourne maltsters to malt in
bond is for the purpose of disposing of the malt after it is made in the colony of Victoria ?-Yes.
50510. It could not he possibly clone without paying the duty. The proposal to allow malting in
bond is simply a proposal to allow the maltsters to h1ke in barley, say from New Zealand, malt it in bond,
and export it again to either Sydney or Adelaide in the shape of malt, so as to be enabled to compete in
the Sydney or Adelaide markets with the New Zealand maltsters. If a :Melbourne maltster attempted to
put that malt on to the Melbourne market, and dispose of it in Victoria, made from foreign barley, before be
could do that he would have to pay the duty just as if he had paid the duty before he turned it into malt?­
Of course that materially alters the case. Of course I should have no objection to that arrangement.
50511. By M;r. ~~olntyre.-How long have you been here ?-Twenty-five years.
50512. What area of land had you first when yon started here ?-Five hundred acres.
50513. You have steadily increasecl tl~at to 1,600 acres ?-Yes.
50514. What do you value yom land at ?-It is bard to say. Land is going up at such a rapid rate
that we can hardly form an idea.
50515. At the present price ?-Some of it is worth a great deal more than the other.
50516. I am speaking about your own ?-Even my own is so widely scattered.
50517. What would he the average of it ?-Some of it is worth, at the present prices, about
£30 an acre, other about £5.
50518. Then would it be too much to average it at £12 an acre ?-No, it is not. I would not let
it go for that. ·
50519. You have built that up out of your farming inclustry ?-Yes-no, not exactly out of'that, I
might have ha.d a little money previous to that.
50520. I do not ~tsk so inquisitively as that. You started at 500 acres, and now you have property
worth over £20,000. You s!ticl to the Chairman that the removal of the duty would affect you prejudicially,
that is upon oats, that formerly you were receiving 2s. Gel. a bushel upon oats, and now you receive 3s.
Did not you receive more than 3s. Gd. a bushel for oats long before there was any dnty on at all ?-Yes,
we received 5s., but that was many years ago, when there was not much farming going on.
50521. It is a question of supply and demand. You bad not the stuff, and you were sure of a
demand for it ?-Yes, hut we are sure of the stuft'now, we have the ground broken up.
50522. You say we have a sufficiency now in the colony to supply the demand ?-Of oat.s?
50523. Yes ?-Not quite.
50524. But you got more for oats before the dnty was on, was not that so ?-Many years ago.
50525. How many years ago ?-Ten or twenty years ago.
50526. Twenty years ago you were getting 20s. a bushel ?-I never saw that here.
50527. And ten years ago you got 5s. a bushel for oats ?-Yes.
50528. Was there any duty on them ?-No duty.
50529. Then the duty has not affected the matter at all, has it, in cereals ?-After that, of course,
they fell so low if it had not been for the duty we would not have been growing oats at all.
50530. When the duty was on they we1·e very low ?-But it had not tn,ken effect then.
50531. You think it stopped the importation ?-To a great extent.
50532. Then if you are only getting 6d. a bushel more for your oats than yoll would have got if
there were no duty on, who is paying that 6d. ?-I suppose those that purchase.
50533. The consumers pay it ?-Yes. .
50534. What extent of oat land is there in this neighbourhood here ?-I could not stty; it i,:; a broad
question.
50535. Y on know the locality very well, being so long here. How many acres do you think are
suitable for growing oats. Of course you have shown that some grow as low as :fifteen hnshels an acre aml
some as high as 50 ?-Any ground snitahle to grow any other cereals is suitable for oats, for oats will
grow upon much poorer grouml than barley or wheat will. .
50536. Some of the farms that you call best fmms produce rbuch more than other farms do, and you
can tell how many acres of land in this neighbourhood are suitable for oat growing. You know, as a matter
of fact, that not much land in the colony of Victoria is suitable for oats except such country as this ?-There
may he 4,000 acres, but those 4,000 do not all grow oats.
1~. R, Grn.ba.m,
Esq., J.l'.,
contnwed.
12th ntay 1883.