14 



ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



, 1919.] 



MR. R. J. TnounoN, O.K.K. 



[Continued. 



9HS3. The tendency for price* to rise WM almost 

 . .-. due tu tin- iiirmers' keenness to get supplies in 



In ilu- . .- 



of manufacture has gone up; that is the only ground 

 upon which MO bare admitted a rise. In the case of 

 feeding tutfs, the conditions are rather diltereiit. 



9883. 1* it your opinion having had ao much to do 

 with tin- fixing of control prices that when you have 

 controlled price, pven though it is a maximum j 

 there U a \--i> strong tendency for that maximum 

 price to liecomo a standard price? There is a very 

 strung tendency for the maximum price to bt-couie 

 a standard price so long as the supply of material 

 is not good; 1 do not think that it keeps the price up 

 I. inn when the supply of material is fairly free. 



I. To put it in another way, do you think when 

 the supplies of material arc fairly good the price 

 mores as easily when there is a maximum price as 

 when there is no control at all? No; 1 quite agree 

 that it does not. My own view is that a controlled 

 price never ought to be put on except when supplies 

 are short. 



9355. Mi. K'lu'iinlt: I understood you to say that 

 the manufacturers were reluctant to fix the price 

 higher for sulphate of ammonia. Does that mean 

 that the manufacturers have been allowed to fix the 

 price at the highest possible limit? No. The price 

 that was fixed by the Board for sulphate of ammonia 

 was less than the tigure suggested by the manufac- 

 turers. At the same time I said that manufacturers 

 were not out to increase prices to the very absolute 

 maximum that they might be able to obtain, because 

 they wished to preserve their home trade in the future 

 and not tu drive farmers into the hands of their com- 

 petitors. 



9256. As a man who has had a good deal of experi- 

 ence in fixing pi-Yes, could you give the Commission 

 your view as to whether the high prices at present 

 prevailing are advantageous or otherwise to the 

 farmers and workers on the land and the community 

 generally? Whether the high prices are beneficial? 



9257. Yes, to the workers. We are farming on a 

 very high scale of prices compared w ith what wo were, 

 doing in pre-war times, and I want your views as to 

 whether the high prices which at present prevail are 

 to the advantage of the farmer and the worker and 

 the community generally or otherwise? I think that 

 is rather too general a question; I do not feel quali- 

 fied to answer that. 



9268. Could you give us your views as to whether 

 the controlling and fixing of prices is a healthy way 

 of conducting business, and do you favour its . .>n 

 tinuation in future? No, I certainly would not 

 favour the control of prices hy the Government. I 

 think that this voluntary control is a very beneficial 

 thing so long as the supplies are not very ample. 



9259. Mr. (irefn: Have you any indication from 

 the purchases which have be'-n made of grass perd 

 lately to lead you to suppose that much land is re- 

 vvrting to grass? No, I have not any information 

 <>n that point. 



9960. You have no knowledge in your Department 

 no sufficient knowledge? No. 



9261. Do you think the Anti-l'rofito'-ring Act which 

 has just been passed will have any effect in the future 

 as regard* keeping down the pri'ces of the commodi- 

 hich fanners have to purchase?- Yes, it is quite 

 possible it may. We have heard of cases of profiteer- 

 ing in fi-.-ding stuffs more particularly, ami the 

 PnAtMriag Act ought to ! useful in the in 

 purchase* made hy farmers in their future deal 



9963. Following upon Mr. li.itchelnr's question as 

 to speculation having taken place. I think it is some- 

 thing beyond a mere <|iioxtinn of tin* opinion of m, r 

 rhanU with regard to the demand in the mark 

 fhould like to know whether tin-re has not been 

 Kood d'-a| of -p.. ul ,ti, ,n by brokers, one broker buy- 

 inn from another broker and no forth, and tlicr. Ky 

 |>"H- the price*? Undoubtedly that ha* 

 happened in certain states nf the market. 



9263. Can you not check that sort of thing being 

 done? Yea. It wan because that was happening to 

 >uch an extent that the present control of feeding 

 .stuff!, wns re-imposed because under this system every 

 dealer has to be licensed, and one of the conditions 

 of tbo licence is that he should Hell at figures not eot- 

 iifdmg the prescribed prices. He is also suhjtvt to 

 other conditions which do enable a certain amount 

 iitrol to be exercised. 



not think that inflated freights have 

 really caused an artificial price to prevail in the case 

 ol feeding .-.tuffs and agricultural machinery? The 

 prices are undoubtedly very much higher owing to the 

 freights, but I do not know whether they are inflated. 



9265. As regards competition in the trade, is there 

 really any competition:' Does the trade now not oon- 

 .-ist of large combines and trusts in regard to feeding 

 stuffs and takes and oil, and MI .n.- There has been 

 a certain amount of amalgamation, but I have not 

 sufficiently original information to enable me to ex- 

 press an opinion upon that. 



92G6. Especially during war time? Yes. 



9267. During the war the Control Department has 

 given these big manufacturers an opportunity of meet- 

 ing and putting their heads together, and they have 

 continued to meet together, and keep up prices?-- 

 Yes. 



9268. Oan you give us any figures of the number 

 of tractors that we have in use in this country at tilt- 

 present time, compared with pre-war times? -Subject 

 to correction I think the number is about 10,000. 

 We imported 6,000 from America, but I am afraid 

 I cannot give you that figure offliarid. If I may 

 supply it to you afterwards 1 will do so. 



9269. Thank you? I will make a note of it. 



9270. Mr. J. M. Henderson: You were speaking 

 about licences and some restrictions having been placed 

 upon brokers. Did those restrict ions prevent the 

 broker from selling under a certain price? Not 

 under. It prevented them from selling over a certain 

 price; it was a maximum price above which no trans- 

 actiuiis should take place. 



9271. Would it not be likely that these brokers 

 would get together and makr the maximum price the 

 standard price?. Yes, that is so; but as soon as Up- 

 market goes down abroad or the market for the raw 

 material goes down it is a fact that the price of the 

 manufactured ,-irticle does tend to go down with it. 



9272. Just to refer you for one moment to linseed. 

 a large source of supply was Russia, was it not? Yes. 



i'LV.'l. If the Russian market is o|*>ned up again the 

 price of linseed coke and oil must, come down, must 

 it not? Undoubtedly the opening up of the Russian 

 market would affect the price of a large number of 

 these materials. 



9274. Oan you tell me what proportion of linseed 

 came from Russia? No, I am afraid I cannot re- 

 member that. Of course Argentina, Russia and 

 India are the time- chief sources of supply, but what 

 the proportion is I do not remember. 



!PJ7:"i. Russia a.s a very large supplier of it'' 

 Russia is undoubtedly a large producer of linseed. 



'.''J7ii. The freights, of course, from Archangel to 

 Hull, where the principal mills are. would he much 

 less than from Argentina or from India? Yes, no 

 doubt. 



9277. So that the tendency when the Russian market 

 is opened up will be for the price of linseed to pi 

 down? Yes, I should think that is so. 



927M. With n^-ard to fertilisers can you explain 

 why with all the enormous amount of steel product it>n 

 I here has lieeil during the past two or three years 

 and the many heavy (lumps which have Keen create), 

 the quantity of basic .slag produced should have gone 

 down? A farge quantity of basic idag was produced, 

 but it contained such an extremely low proportion of 

 phosphoric acid as to make it valueless. 



9279. Surely thtso dumps from tin- steel works are 

 full of sulphur. How did they get rid of the sulphur? 

 As I mentioned In-fore I do not understand the pro 

 cess, but the fact is thnt there- have lx*n, and then- 

 are still, large dumps of slag from the steel works 

 which only contain 4 to 5 per cent, of phosphoric 

 acid which means about 10 or 12 per cent, of total 

 phosphates and they would not be worth grinding. 



