MINUTES OF EVIDENCE, 



'>3 September, 1919.] 



Mu. H. G. HOWELL, F.C.A. 



[Continued. 



THIRTEENTH DAY. 



TUESDAY, 23uD SEPTEMBER, 1919. 



PRESENT : 

 Sin WILLIAM BARCLAY L'KAT (Chairman). 



Sin WILLIAM JAMES ASHLEY. Mi:. F. E. GREEN. 



[Jit. C. M. DOUGLAS, C.B. Mit. J. M. HENDERSON. 



Mit. G. G. REA, C.B.E. MR. T. HENDERSON. 



MB. HENRY OVERMAN, O.13.E. ME. T. PROSSER JONES. 



MB. A. W. ASHBY. MB. E. W. LANGFORD. 



MK. A. BATCHELOR. MB. H. V. LENNARD. 



MR. H. 8. CAUTLEY, K.C., M.I'. Mu. GEORGE N1CHOLLS. 



MB. GEORGE DALLAS. MB. E. H. PARKER. 



MB. J. F. DUNCAN Mu. R. R. ROBBINS. 



Mu. W. KDWAi:U>. MB. W. R. SMITH, M.I'. 



Mi:. H. G. HOWELL, F.C.A. (Director Agricultural Costs under Agricultural Costings Committee), 



recalled and examined. 



i, 



11.140. Chairman: Wo are very much obliged to 

 on, Mr. Howell, for the statements of accounts you 



uave been kind enough to send us under your cover- 

 ing letter of the 17th September, and also for the 

 promise of further statements which you are good 

 enough to make us. I believe you have some further 

 statements with you which you desire to submit to us 

 at once, but unfortunately the Commission cannot deal 

 with statements they have not yet had time to 

 examine* ? No. 



11.141. I have the authority of the members for 

 expressing the thanks of the Commission to you and 

 your Department for the extraordinary amount of 

 trouble you have taken in collecting and preparing 

 the information you have now supplied us with ; 

 and we desire also to express our thanks through you 

 to the farmers who have voluntarily sent the state- 

 ments to you which you have been good enough to 

 send on to us? Thank you. 



11.142. Mi. .Smith : I understand that these figures 

 are tabulated from information sent in to you by 

 farmers? Yee. 



11.143. Could you tell us in what form they come 

 to you. Are they in the form of definite balance 



properly audited, or in what form? They arc 

 in the form of definite balance sheets, as you term 

 them, but the majority are not audited. 



11.144. Do they contain the whole of the workings of 

 the farm or do thfey just deal with one section of the 

 operations, say, cereals as distinct from the fattening 

 of livestock or anything of that sort? No; they 

 deal with tho whole farm. 



11,1 \-~>. You have dissected them in these various 

 Tables you have presented to us? That is so. 



11,146. Would they be fairly representative of the 

 irniiirry. or do they come from any special district; 1 

 Included iri the * information which I have ready 



* The statements uf ;irr<miit.s will be published as an 

 Appendix to Volume IV. Minutes of Kvicli>m-e and 

 should be ri'H;irded in interim (inures only. Certain 

 additional information has still to be leeeived, and 

 the final corrected figures will be presented in a later 

 r- |iort. 



to submit to the Commission there is a Table showing 

 the geographical distribution of these accounts. You 

 will find that they come from about 40 counties in 

 England, 8 in Wales, and 14 in Scotland. 



11,147-. In so far as you are able to judge would 

 they come from what might be termed representative 

 farmers farmers farming on a scale that might in- 

 dicate the general condition of the county as far as 

 it is possible to do so? I cannot say anything de- 

 finite with regard to that ; they were asked for at 

 random without having regard to whether the persons 

 were or were not representative farmers, but they 

 do in fact cover a large number of types and different 

 sizes of farms. 



11.148. Did you get many returns from Lincoln- 

 shire ? Yes, I have had about 11 I think from 

 Lincolnshire. 



11.149. Any from the more southern part of Lin- 

 colnshire? 1 do not know with regard to that. 



11.150. Mr. Parker: You sent out some forms to 

 be filled up? Yes. 



11,131. Were they filled up generally to your satis- 

 faction? With the exceptions stated in my Report, 

 yes. 



11.152. The method you adopted shows some rather 

 strange results. Do you consider that the figures 

 obtained are reliable? I am not quite sure that I 

 gather your meaning. 



11.153. Take the case of the amount of capital per 

 acre shown in the farm. The average capital is 

 1:11 17s. 9d. ThafT seems to me very low, but it is 

 accounted for I think by the tenant right valuation 

 having been included by many farmers and omitted 

 by many others? Omitted in a very large number 

 of cases. 



11.154. The method in which these forms have been 

 filled up would throw that capital per acre out al- 

 together ?~Yes. 



11.155. If you took the tenant right valuation at 

 Michaelmas at about 3 per acre it would add con- 

 siderably to the amount of capital employed on the 

 farm? It would. 



1!,15C. So that the result of filling up tho forms 

 li:>- not led to quite a satisfactory report en the 

 amount of capital in the farms? -That is so. 



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