IIS 

 3 Sptmbr, UMl'.j 



< "MMii"\ ON M.Kit i I.ITKI.. 



MK. FALCONE* L. WALLACE. 



[Continued, 



>. You oro good enough to t*y that you bad 

 .i< tuul balance tJieoU of farmers? Yea 



ual balance sheets of real farms? Yes; 

 mude nut li\ i li.iiii-u-il accountant* over a series of 

 in Home caeca dealing with five consecutive years 

 farming. 



>. Are these tin- farmer's own balance ahoetsF 

 No, they an- made out by a chartered accountant. 



i. From tboir own figures? YOB. The firm of 

 accountant* keep the books for the fanner. 



I Those would be for farms of 100 to 300 acres, 

 ucb as I bare quoted to you now ? I cannot tell you 

 which ; but some of these figures are actually taken 

 from those balance sheets. 



-mi. Wo hare had one balance sheet, but that was 

 of a very largo estate. We have had no balance sheet 

 of small larins of 100 to 300 acres, and BO on? 'I 'here 

 are several balance sheets of these individual farms 

 1 have mentioned which are ordinary medium-sized 

 farm*. 



1. There is another one in the next tahle which 

 1 should like to ask you about. It is dairy mixed, 

 tlu> tifth down. Them again the balance sheet shows 

 JLI.IS5 9s. profit, with a caah profit of 1,202 in 1914.- 

 lou will find the actual statements in the bundle 

 1 have referred to. 



">. Then I will not trouble with any more, except 

 No. x. 1 think there is a clerical error there. 1 

 think the 125 3s. ought to be 1,253? No, that is 

 right. 1 thought so too when I was reading over the 

 figures, but you will see the reason in my statement. 

 The actual statement of account is in the bundle. 

 There was a special explanation of it. 



I. What is your own private estimate, as a 

 practical farmer, of what the guarantee should be, 

 if there is to be one at all? Do you mean the price? 



S 777. You know the Corn Production Act guaran- 

 '-. for the wheat of this crop? Yes. You mean, 

 what is my idea of what price should be guaranteed. 



8778. That is it? I am not prepared to give an 

 answer, because, although I got out some figures for it 

 last year, costs have changed very much ; and the only 

 way you can arrive at any proper data, for that, is by 

 asking a largo number of people in different parts <ii' 

 lhi> country and averaging it out. There is nothing 

 more bewildering, 1 have found, than getting out 

 estimates of costs from different parts of the country 

 which vary by several pounds an acre. There is a 

 iea.son for it too; that is, the variable costs in pro- 

 duction according to the situation of the land. 



s-77'.l. Have you formed any idea <if the length of 

 years which this guarantee should cover? No, I have 

 not. 



8780. Or have you formed any idea as to what are 

 the prospo N after the guarantee is finished? Yes, 

 1 have tried to describe that in my address to the 

 Ahcrdi-en Chamber of Commerce. It is perfectly im- 

 powilih-. in my opinion, for farming to pay the present 

 costs if tin- pri'-o of produce goes down. The, prices of 



implement* and so on, may go down; but in my 

 own mind I think it is improbable that wage* w ill go 

 down. I shall be very sorry to seo thorn go down, 

 and no every farmer will be." All the farmers ask is, 

 that they shall bo kept in the position to pay them ; 

 but they certainly will not IMI in a position" to pay 

 them, tir nt least such is my opinion, if prices are left 

 mTely to bo regulated by supply and demand. I try 

 to bring that point ou'C in my address. It is only a 

 matter of price for wheat to come out. I cannot 

 jay noxt year or the year after what the price will 

 be, it in pure guess work. 



8781. Supposing after this guarantee is over, the 

 price of Colonial wheat dropped down in the market 



ml tin- price of all feeding stuffs and 

 implement* dropped similarly. 1,-iiving the wages alone, 

 nre you -till of opinion that then it becomes an im 

 possibility to K row wheat at a profit P I do not think 

 it will be powibU, but I do not think it is possible 

 to legislate far ahead. Nobody knows what < !. 



i store; arid I do not see that aiubody , ,,,,|.| 

 possibly fix n minimum price for more than a short 



riod ahead, n nd renew it from time to time. It 

 a perfect kaleidoscope. There is nothing more 

 bewildering thnn going into these accounts, as I did 

 ai the position is changing the whole time. 



ages and Conditions of KniMloymcnt in Agri 

 ' you sav : " If the cost of food such as 



s7?-J. Mr. Tluinuu llcmitrton: Could \..u " " Uh 

 exactly \\hut it meant b\ that last column in \oiu 

 schedule,' the piolu in 1!U1 at present rate ol 

 wages, that is, the 1918 scale i wages. Hou ilo \<m 

 calculate thai .- tin- 1 did lor another ( 'oiiiinil li 

 year. That La to say, if wages which . i. p:u>: 

 year had been paid iu 1914, that is what the profit 

 would have been. 



i. Did }ou take the 1918 prices?- No. All I did 

 was to take the farming acmunis for l!il-l, and 1 

 simply imagined that those individuals <>i whom I had 

 u note, and in each case 1 had taken a note, had I" -en 

 paid at the t ate of the !'.'> wages. Then the !:! I 

 profit would have been reduced no much. 



8784. You iv\erely substitute'. 1 18181 I merely hub 

 stituted that wage for the same individuals for l!'l I. 



8785. Without taking into account any diminution? 

 \Yithout taking that into account. 



". \\iihou; conquering whether the sumo number 

 of labourers were employed or not? No; I took the 

 actual individuals in each case. 



8787. With regard to your sliding scale, what food 

 stuff do you j-iupo-e this }() per cent, of yours should 

 apply to, which is to slide up and down according to 

 prices? 1 meant all food stuffs which are produced on 

 the farm; for instance, oafs, wheat, milk, meat, and 

 potatoes. That is what I meant. 



8788. But you see in the excerpt from your report 

 on " Wa 



culture '' you say 

 milk, flour, sugar rose the wages would have to rise 

 similarly proportionately '' r- Of course that was a 

 slip, 1 could not alter it after I had written it in my 

 report; but sugar is an imported article. 



8789. That is one difficulty 1 had? This is an ex- 

 cerpt from my report; and it occurred to me after- 

 wards it ought not to be included. Of course, it is 

 not home produce. 



8790. You vould fluctuate this 40 per cent, with the 

 price of home grown produce? That was my idea. 



^7!) I. But you will agree that meat and bread, to 

 some extent, are also imported? Yes. 



8792. Are \ou going to make an allowance for the 

 imjiortcd quantities? No; because you will have to 

 make it fluctuate according to the price of that article, 

 whether it is imported or not. I mean to say, the 

 farmer's price is regulated by the importations. 



8793. So that you are going to take the- wh.ilc 

 amount of food consumed by the faini labour- 1 

 suppose, and make that 40 per cent, apply to that? 

 Yes. 



879J. What quantities of each nre you going to 

 laker How are you going to fix the quantities <>r 

 these food stuffs that -ire goi.- r into the com 



position of this sliding sealer 'I he Heard have had a 

 large . number of labourers' budgets all over the 

 country, which, I think, have been published in Blue 

 Book form, which. 1 think, give you a very good idea 

 of each article consumed in England. It was the 

 subject of a great investigation. 



i. Have you any knowledge of the working of 

 the sliding scales in other industries?-. No. I lu\e 

 not. 



8796. You do not know, for example, how they 

 work in the coal trader -No, I do not. 



8797. Would not it bo well to consider how it worked 

 there before you apply it to another industry? It 

 may not be at all on all fours. 



-71'*. You know in the. coal trade wages are Mip 

 1 to fluctuate- on the selling juice ( ,l coal:-' Yes ; 

 but I have not said wages should. I ^aid a propor- 

 tion of th It. makes the whole difference. 



-7!l'.. Yes, a little? It. is the whole differn ,-. I 



do not say the whole wage should flue tun to, by no 



I said a piojvort ion of the wage that 'pro 



portion which applies to the purchase of the stuff 



which is produced upon the farm the foodstuffs 



8800. That is. of mui-e. tin- only part they could 

 apply tor Yes ; l, u( (I,-,) j.. the difference between 

 this and :m industry like the coal industry, because 

 there you are talking about the whole wage fluctua- 

 ting. I did not projiow- that. 



ffiOl. I <piite agree: but the point is that you make 

 the principle apply in (lie farming industry just as far 

 as it can apply, as in the eoal trade: that' is to say, 

 fhe selling pri'-e of the commodity has a good deal 

 to do with this proposal, and tho wages? Yes. 



* Sec Tables in Appendix No. V. 



