80 



ItnYAl. I'OMMISBI" \GKICULTIKK. 



2 Soptomlxr, 1919.] 



MB. R. COLTON Fox. 



[Continued. 



will not the effect be that they will not sell it at less 

 than 70s., when they know there is a minimum here? 



No; not when the supply of the world become* 



normal, because they cannot take it :iway fr<.m UN and 

 dump it where it is not wanted. 



7586. You said that farmers had made money and 

 paid their overdrafts off? Yes. 



7587. So that those who put their capital in over- 

 drafts have now paid them off and have got the 

 capital themselves? Yes. 



7588. And they do not want to lose it? No. They 

 want to keep it. 



7589. And you think they should do so? Yes. 



We thank you very much. 



(Tht Witneu withdrew.) 



Mr. CASTKLL WBKY, recalled and further examined. 



7590. Chairman : You were kind enough to eay you 

 would come again to supplement the evidence which 

 you gave on the former occasion when you were a 

 witness here before the Royal Commission? Yes. 



7591. You have put in a statement showing the 

 cost of production for the years 1917-18 and 1918-19, 

 and your farming accounts and balance sheets*? 

 Yes. 



7592. You have also put in summaries of valuations 

 which show the total value and the average per 

 head of the horses, cattle, sheep and pigs? Yes. 



7593. Will you allow me to put those in without 

 reading them out? Yes. 



7594. Mr. Smith : In the summaries of valuations, 

 do you test the position yourself later in regard to 

 the valuations made or do you just accept them? 

 I have to accept them ; I have nothing to do with the 

 figures. 



7595. You do not form any opinion of your own as 

 to how far they are satisfactory or anything of that 

 sort? Yes, I have a very strong opinion with regard 



tO tilt-Ill. 



7596. Would you state that in the latter years 

 these valuations have been all up to market prices? 

 I have a letter from the valuers here which I will 

 read to you if you will allow me. 



7597. If you please? I saw one of the partners 

 of the firm in Peterborough last Saturday, and 1 

 told him that the question you have just raised had 

 been suggested I think by Mr. Overman the last 

 time I was here, and I asked him if he could give me 

 some statement as to how he arrived at his figures. 

 This is the letter he has written me: " Dear Sir, 

 With reference to our conversation as to the annual 

 stocktaking valuation we have made on the Apethorpe 

 Home Farms. We have considered the several 

 systems suggested at various times by our clients as 

 to these valuations. What we have done is; cultiva- 

 tions and tenant-right as nearly as possible as if ,we 

 were valuing for an outgoing tenant on quitting. 

 Implements and machinery : A deduction for wear 

 and tear and an addition for new stock added. Live 

 stock : Breeding stock and working horses not likely 

 to be sold, at a fair standardised price, not according 

 market variations of the moment, otherwise the same 

 animal might compare most illogically with its pre- 

 vious or future price in the valuation. Young stock 

 certain to be marketed and draft ewes, drape cows 

 and surplus horses: At their market price on the 

 day of valuation. We know the difficulties, but the 

 great thing is to show the true state of the farm as a 

 going concern and not as about to be broken up. 

 Young horses, when put in team, at market price." 



"'''- I". yi. u '., |tm !:< thai thai on tin- .-m-i-a:;.- 

 these figures would represent something below market 

 prices, taken altogether? Except for stock that he 

 thinks in actually ready for marketing. 



7889. I suppose the beasts, so far as their condition 

 for marketing is concerned, would average practi- 

 cally the same each year? Yes. T think they would. 



7600. Has not the price for beasts increased more 

 than from 14 to 20 a head between 1914 :m.l 

 1919? You are speaking of cattle, I imagine? 



7801. YesP 19 19. ns against 14 14s. 



7602. Yes, I should have thought the difference 

 in market price between the two periods waa railn-r 

 more than that? Yen. but. ns he ;i 

 value anything at market price, except whnt is 

 actually going to 1 marketed. 



7903. The*e raliintinns nt nny rate in the latter 

 Tears dlow on the Ion- side rather thnn nny tendency 

 to inflation - I should think the valuations are 



St' 



Til. 



very conservative. May 1 say I wrote to the Secre- 

 1..1H-- ami -ai.! that 1 lunl an explanation which I 

 wished to make with regard to the evidence I gave 

 when I was here before. The explanation I desire to 

 make is this: " I very much regret that my answer 

 to question No. 3879 in BO far as what I may term 

 the cricket match and threshing incident was 

 inaccurate; the incident did not take place. An 

 assistant overheard a conversaiton between some of 

 the men on another of the farms which led him to 

 think that they were not threshing that day, and 

 without verifying the men's statement informed me 

 that threshing was not going on, and also without 

 verifying it, I myself repeated the statement. I am 

 extremely sorry that I should have made -such a 

 statement to you without having substantiated the 

 facts and beg you to accept my regrets." 



7604. Mr. Parker: I have been looking at the 

 figures in your accounts from 1913 to 1918. I see 

 that the years 1913 and 1914 show a loss and the 

 years 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918 show a profit. The 

 balance of profit on those years is 5,490. During 

 that period from 1913 to "1918 your valuation in- 

 creased from 21,009 to 31,651. The average of 

 capital in the farm is, therefore, about 34,900. If 

 you allow 6 per cent, on that capital you would want 

 1,500 a year and six times 1,500 is 9,000. Xhe 

 balance between your profitable years and your un- 

 profitable years is a profit of 5,490. If you set off 

 against that 9,000 for interest the net result in 

 those years shows a loss of 3,510, does it not? The 

 question is rather a long one, and there are a large 

 number of figures in it, I am afraid. 



7605. Yes, it is a long question. What I am put- 

 ting to you is that on the six years there is a heavy 

 loss shown? As far as the balance sheet goes, but I 

 do not think there was a loss. 



760G. These are actual figures that I am putting 

 to you? Four years' profit and two years' loss. 



7607. You have put nothing in for interest on 

 your capital? No. I explained that point the othvr 

 day. 



7608. I am putting to you that if you allow six 

 per cent, interest on your capital there is a con- 

 siderable loss shown over that period of years? If 

 you count the interest on capital in, but I do not 

 think you should count it in. 



7609. I am putting to you that if you allow six per 

 cent, on the capital? I think the actual figures for 

 the six years show a profit. 



7610. The actual figures without allowing anything 

 for interest show a profit of 5,490, but il ymi allm 

 six per cent, for interest, which comes to 9,000, 

 they show a loss of 3,510. Therefore, if you allowed 

 anything for interest on your -apitul (luring that 

 period the farm would show a loss? But I do not 

 allow anything for interest. If I buy rubber shares 

 and do not get any interest I do not write my rubber 

 account down, and why should I do it in fanning? 

 'I ho interest is your profit in my opinion. 



7611. Mr. Nicholls: In the calculations you put 

 hefore the Commission in your evidence WMB you 



previously examined, did you go back to the 

 time when tho Apethorpe farm was token over by 

 Mr. Leonard Brassey or were they only in respect of 

 the period during which you have l>een there? The 

 evidence I gave was over tho eight years; it did not 

 go back to the date when Mr. Brnssey took it over. 

 I gave the i ircumstanres in which ho took it over. 



7612. Mr. J.rnn<ir<J: Following up the questions 

 Mr. Parker asked you just now, I understood you to 

 say last time that the farm was practically a rabbit 

 warren when it was first taken over? Yes. 



