MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



26 August, 1910.] 



Mil. B. C. BOURNE. 



[Continued. 



5695. Do you find any disinclination on tho part 

 of the men to work overtime:" We try as a principle 

 not to work more overtime than can be helped. The 

 men have fixed hours of labour now, and one tries 

 not to exceed them unless it is necessary. 



5696. You think it preferable to take on an extra 

 man rather than work overtime:' Yes. 



5697. Of course, the 12 men earn more in the aggro - 

 than the 1 1 would liavo done? That is true. 



5698. But still, with the shortening of hours, the 

 12 men do earn a proportion of the increase of labour 

 per hour, because they are getting the same wage for 

 50 hours that they previously did for 54? Yes. 



5699. And they are sufficiently well off not to care 

 about overtime? The difficulty is that the shorten- 

 ing of hours has been very largely taken up by giving 

 the Saturday half-holiday. There is no doubt that 

 the men value the Saturday half-holiday very much. 



5700. This summer, up to the 1st October, you get 

 54 hours, and after the 1st October it will be 50? 

 Yes, and that will mean further overtime because I do 

 not think we can u.->o another man. 



5701. As to paragraph (8) with regard to tho 

 (use of keeping one Hereford cow I do not quite 

 follow your figure of 12 per annum in 1918. You 

 say, " Of this amount 10 represents food and '2 

 wages, vet., &c.," and further on you say. " 3 

 represents rent and rates on the pastures and tho 

 remaining 7 is for food grown on the farm. Of 

 this amount about to 10s. is paid in wages, tho 

 remaining 30s. being for rent, manures, &c."? 

 Originally the accounts were presented in thih way. 

 The stockman presents his account for looking after 

 cattle, wages so much; and from another man you get 

 on his wage sheet, " Helping stockman two davs," or 

 whatever it may be. Those iteni.t are charged again>t 

 the cattle as labour, but when you come to the home 

 grown foods and work them out still further, a great 

 di>al of the cost of those is in the labour bill. If you 

 take 10 as representing food a good deal of that 

 Li wages paid in labour. 



5702. That includes the food* It is food at cost 

 price to the cattle. 



"703. 12 seems to me a very low sum for keeping 

 a breeding cow just now? Tne.ro is no interest on 

 your stock and no depreciation in it, but as far as I 

 ran make out it costs 12 a year to keep it and there 

 i-s very little bought food in'that. 



."7i4. How many grazing weeks are there in that? 

 n months I should think entirely in the vear. 

 It depends upon the M-awn. You have to begin to 

 feed alxnit the middle of November and bring them 

 in about the middle of December and keep them ill 

 until May Day. 



5705. What do you feed them on? Hay, chaff, 

 and roots mostly. 



6706. Can you do that at 12 a year, including tho 

 labour? Yes, as far as I can calculate it. I can 

 show you the accounts for last year. I make it that 

 wo did do it for 12 last year, but, of course, there 

 is practically no cake allowed for in that. Practically 

 nothing has been bought no cake at all. If 



you begin to buy food of course you would not touoh 

 the figure. 



5707. The Chairman: You mentioned that you had 

 your costings for all the "produce in one cost account ? 

 As far as the straw crops are concerned. 



5708. Yes, in one cost account? Yes, but in 

 working it out I lumped them together because one 

 is not quite certain that one has apportioned certain 

 things as between certain crops and in a large 

 acreage it makes a big difference. 



j~09. If you could give us separate statements, 

 making the best estimate you can, but so that the 

 separate statements agree-with the total that would 

 be very interesting and useful to us? I will try to 

 do so, certainly. 



5710. If you please. I suppose you have got a.n 

 .accurate balance sheet and probably a profit and loss 



account? Yes. 



5711. Does this combined cost which you have 

 referred to, and which I have just referred to, fit 

 iu with the actual results of your trading operations? 

 It fits in very approximately. It is difficult to be 

 quite certain because your costs of certain crops 

 overlap during .the year, and the profit and loss 

 account is strictly balanced in the calendar year from 

 January to January. The crops, of course, overlap. 



5712. It fits in very closely, I understand? Yes. 

 The total labour cost and tho costing account and tho 

 actual wages paid are approximately identical. Of 

 course, the bills are taken from the cost account, and 

 it fits in approximately, but it is a difficult thing 

 to apply it to individual crops, the crops not being 

 quite of equal duration. 



5713. How is the valuation at the end treated in 

 the costings? The valuation is ignored in the cost- 

 ings; it is simply an attempt to find out what it 

 actually costs you to cultivate the different crops. 

 The only attempt I have made to deal with that is to 

 put in the depreciation on the stock and the interest 

 on capital. 



5714. Your profit or your loss, according to the profit 

 and loss account, will vary as compared with the 

 balance sheet and profit and loss account, according to 

 the increase or diminution in the valuation? 

 Naturally. 



5715. I do not quite remember if you were agreeable, 

 subject to your father's consent, to send us the balance 

 sheet and profit and loss account for the inspection of 

 the members of the Commission? Subject to my 

 father's consent, yes. I cannot, of course, undertake 

 to deal with his private property. 



5716. Quite right. I agree entirely that you could 

 not do so without his consent, but he has given you 

 his consent to send us the statements of the costing 

 which you have put before us? Yes. 



5717. Also, probably you will equally with his consent 

 bo able to send us the details of the straw crops indi- 

 vidually ; those details fitting in with the total which 

 you have got before you? --I will do my best to work 

 them out for you, but I cannot guarantee to give you 

 tho details as regards tho individual straw crops very 

 accurately. I can give you (the lump stun accurately, 

 but not the sum in respect of each individual crop. 



(The Witness withdrrv*.) 



Mr M. D. BANNISTER, F.S.I., called and examined. 



6718. The Chairman: You have been kind, enough to 

 VIH! tho Commission notes of the evidence you pro- 

 pose to give iiere? Yes. 



6719. Will you allow mo to make it an exhibit to 

 your evidence? Certainly. 



5720. You are a Land Agent and Agricultural 

 Valuer of Market Place, Hayward's Heath? Yes. 



(Evi<lence-in-ihief handed in bi/ Witness.) 

 The particulars of cultivation.-; given IK low are taken 

 from actual Stocktaking Valuations made during the 

 end of May and beginning of .1 line, HM9. Tho cost of 

 each process is based on tlio actual time taken and 

 wag< paid. 



The crop is, in the few cases where it has been 

 threshed, the actual yield. In tho others, it is an 



estimate made during the last few days by the Witness 

 in conjunction with the farmer. 



5721. (1) Five Acres of Suxxrx Lit/lit Lund (citli thin 

 il __ Wheat 1919 after Fallow 1918. Wheat 1917. 



At per acre. 



s. d. s. d. 



Once ploughed, 2 horses ... = 36 900 



Twice tractor -ploughed, at 3Us. = 60 15 



Twice tractor-cultivated, at 10s. = 20 500 



Once horse-harrowed ...... = 20 10 



IT, bushels wheat, at 90s. per qr. = 889 



Dressing wheat ......... = 20 10 



Disc drilled, 2 horses ...... = 46 1 3 l> 



88 loads yard dung, carted and 



spread' at 5s. 6d ....... 24 4 



