MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



101 



24 September, 1919.] 



MR. JAMES WYLLIE. 



[Continued. 



FOURTEENTH DAY. 



WEDNESDAY, 24xn SEPTEMBER, 1919. 



PRESENT : 



SIK WILLIAM BARCLAY PEAT (Chairman). 



DR. C. M. DOUGLAS, C.B. MB. J. M. HENDERSON. 



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



MM. W. AXKER SIMMONS, C.B.E. MR. T. PROSSER JONES. 



MK. HKNRY OVERMAN, O.B.E. MR. E. W. LANGFORD. 



MR. A. BATCHELOR. MK. R. V. LENNARD. 



MR. A. W. ASHBY. MB. GEORGE NICHOLLS. 



MR. GEORGE DALLAS. MR. E. H. PARKER. 



MK. J. F. DUNCAN. MR. H. R. ROBBINS. 



MK. \V. KDWAHDS. Mu. W. R. SMITH, M.i'. 

 MR. F. K. GREEN. 



Mr. JA.MKS WM.I.IK. li.Sc. (Agri.), N.F.U., etc., recalled and further examined. 



12.029. Mr. .ishby. The general principle which 

 guides you in estimating costs, I take it, is the ttate- 

 ment which you have made on one or two occasions, 

 that the cost must represent the minimum net price 

 at which a crop can be sold if the farm r is to get 

 a fair return on his capital and a fair reward for 

 Ins work? Yes, that is my basis. 



12.030. Looking, for instance, at your fiv.uro< for 

 the cost per quarter of wheat in this statement, say, 

 in 1919, at wh;it figure would you suggest that a 

 price should be fixed in that list? Do yon mean in 

 the Summary? 



12.031. Yes, of wheat? I hare never (oiis'd-ied 

 the question of fixing a price. I have considered it 

 my business to put the facts before you so far as I 



iscertain them, but not to go any further than 

 that. 



12.032. Following up your principle, that the cost 

 o{ production represents the minimum figure at whirh 

 a price must be fixed if a farmer is to get interest on 

 hid capital and reward for his labour, the price would 

 have to be fixed in this case at 114s. ? I do not quite 

 think that follows. I think that in any question of 

 fixing prices, although I would rather not enter into 

 the question at all, there will always be some farmer? 

 who will not get this return on their capital ar-" 

 reward for their labour. 



12.033. In that case cost of production has nothing 

 to do with price? Not the maximum cost of pro- 

 duction. 



12.034. What cost of production has got to do with 

 price? Something considerably less than the maxi- 

 mum cost. 



12.035. As a matter of fact in that case you would 

 exclude all interest or all reward for management on 



rtain number of farmers' operations? It would 

 work out in that way, certainly. 



12.036. So that whether the price in fixed by the, 

 market or by some social nrtion, price has nothing at 

 all to do with the costs of production? I am sorry 

 I do not quite follow what you are trying to get at. 



I2.0:t7. Let. me read this statement again. You say: 



25831 



The co.t of production is defined at such a figure as 

 will represent the minimum net price at which a crop 

 can bo sold or otherwise realised if a farmer is to get 

 a fair return on his invested capital and a reasonable 

 remuneration as manager of his busiiies>." From 

 your statement, that on these figures any price fixed 

 must be certainly below the maximum cost of produc- 

 tion, you do necessarily exclude interest on a lot of 

 tanners' capital and remuneration for a lot of 

 farmers' labour in your price? Certainly; it is bound 

 to work out in that way in practice. 



12.038. It comes to this, does it not, that you would 

 pay interest on capital and remuneration for labour 

 only when the capital is efficiently used and the 

 farmers' labour is efficient? It does not necessarily 

 follow. In this particular case I should say that it 

 is very largely a question of the weather. With the 

 most efficient management you are still up against 

 the difficulty of the weather, taking this particular 

 year, 1919. 



12.039. Let us take 1918. If you look down that 

 list you will see the cost per quarter varies between 

 62e. and 124s. In that case in which there was no 

 particular complaint against the weather, when your 

 price was 76s. 6d., you were still refusing to pay a 

 certain number of farmers, who may or may not have 

 been inefficient, their total costs of production? I 

 agree. 



12.040. So that you do come back to this point, that 

 interest on capital and remuneration for the farmers' 

 labour is only a claim on the price, so to speak, when 

 both are efficiently used? You may put it in that 

 way if you like, but I am not quite sure that it is 

 altogether a fair statement. 



12,041. Would you look at paragraph 6* of your 

 evidence? You say: " Upon Jhis point the Union is 

 of opinion that the evidence has been obtained mainly 

 from the better and more skilled class of farmers." 

 On what do you base that statement? It is partly 

 based upon personal meetings and conversations with 

 the farmers who have submitted these statements, and 



* fSee 13th Day, Kvidence-in-chief of Mr. James Wyllie. 



G 3 



