MINUTES OK EVIDENCE. 



39 



6 August, 1919.] 



SIR HENRY REW, K.C.B. 



[Continued. 



by a Committee on which several of us worked 

 under your chairmanship. That Committee prepared 

 schedules of inquiry, of which about 1,500 were circu- 

 lated, and you received only 119 returns, of vhich 

 only 45 came from farms occupied by tenants or work- 

 ing farmers, and you expressed your regret that the 

 response to your appeal was disappointing. I suppose 

 if that schedule had asked for information for fewer 

 years than five, you would, perhaps, have obtained a 

 larger number of returns? Yes, I think that might 

 have been so. 



859. Have you any suggestion to make as to the 

 way in which we could obtain a larger number of 

 returns? For instance, does your experience suggest 

 any improvement in the form of inquiry in Appendix 

 13 on page 71? I do not think it would be easy, 

 except, as you suggest, by reducing the number of 

 years, to reduce very much the amount of informa- 

 tion you asked for. As a matter of fact, from the 

 point of view of this Commission, you probably want 

 to increase it. 



860. For which agricultural year should we 

 endeavour to obtain information, in your judgment? 

 As far as income is concerned, we are -now in the 

 middle of an agricultural year ? Yes ; we are getting 

 near the end of what is ordinarily reckoned as the 

 agricultural year, from Michaelmas. At least, that 

 is the year we find convenient for the purpose of 

 returns. I do not know. The difficulty is that if 

 you only confine yourself to a war year, like 1918-19, 

 or 1917-18, you have to make allowance for the abnor- 

 mal conditions." You certainly could not get anything 

 now, for some little while to come, with regard to the 

 complete year 1918-19. You would have to wait till 

 after Michaelmas. 



861. Without keeping you longer on this matter, 

 would it be possible for you to send in some notes 

 or observations with regard to the form of return, 

 for the benefit of the sub-committee which has been 

 appointed? Yes, I should be very pleased to do so. 



862. Then you say, with regard to the return 

 from home farms, on page 15, that in fact the 

 home farm is frequently regarded as an amenity 

 of the estate, and not primarily a:s a commercial 

 venture, which tends to make them unrepresenta- 

 tive of ordinary farms. Do you think it is impossible 

 to distinguish between what you may call amenity 

 nome farms and commercial home farms ; so im- 

 jiosKiMe that e liarl bettor nay no attention to 

 information coming from home farms? No; it might 

 not be impossible, if you can be assured in every 

 case it is run as a commercial proposition. I do 

 not think it would be impossible. 



863. Then with regard to the co-operative farms, 

 on page 18, there seem to be two difficulties: that 

 it is iiot MMnMe in most cases to separate the 

 records of the farming operations from the ordinary 

 trading operations, and, further, that in most of the 

 returns even the acreage of the land is not given. 

 Do you not think it possible to obtain from the 

 Co-operative Societies information which would over- 

 come those two difficulties? It ought to be possible, 

 certainly. In some cases it was furnished, of course. 



864. Finally, you had to base your conclusions, 

 in the main, I gather, on 26 returns. I have not 



worked through these yet very carefully ; but it does 

 not seem as if you were able to classify those 26, either 

 according to the size of the farms or according to the 

 character of the agriculture? It would have been 

 quite possible to do, but it was not done, because the 

 number we had was too small to permit any sub- 

 division of it. 



865. Then in your final summary, on page 44, the 

 general conclusion with regard to the position of the 

 farmers in 1918, in paragraph 205, seems to be 

 limited according to paragraph 204 to mixed farms 

 of 300 acres. Is that the meaning of those two 

 pa ragraphs ? Yes . 



866. I suppose if one works carefully through the 

 preceding paragraphs one will see how you can get out 

 of these 26 farms which you do not classify, a figure 

 for a mixed farm of 300 acres. It does not strike 

 one as very obvious, when one turns over the pages? 

 No ; I think, if I remember rightly, it is explained 

 in the text, but I have not it in my mind. 



867. In paragraph 73 you say: "A large number' 

 of estimates of the cost of producing cereal crops, 

 and so on, were submitted ; but the element of actual 

 record is so small that the Committee did not feel 

 justified in making use of this material." Is that 

 material still in existence, or has it been destroyed, 



"or is it still in the office? I believe all the material 

 is still in existence. Whatever is in existence is, 

 of course, at the disposal of the Commission. 



868. And although, as covering five years, it might 

 be very defective, it is conceivable that it would 

 bo of some use for the most recent years? Yes. 

 It might quite well be looked through. Of course, 

 when I said offhand it is at the disposal of this 

 Commission, I must make a reservation. It may 

 be that in some cases we should ask that the indi- 

 vidual's name should not be revealed, as it was 

 given to us in confidence ; and I could not hand 

 over the name without the consent of the person who 

 supplied it, although I could hand over the material. 



869. Would you be good enough to look through 

 it and see whether apparently it is of some material 

 use? Yes. 



870. Chairman: I am asked by a member of the 

 Commission to ask you if the Board of Agriculture 

 would kindly furnish the Commission with the prices 

 paid by County Councils for land at the present 

 time. Are you able to furnish that? Yes, I think 

 we can give you some information about that. 



871. Then as a matter of form, will you be so 

 kind as to put in the statements you have mentioned 

 in your precis of evidence? I refer particularly 

 to the statements following the words " I submit, 

 by way of example "t Yes, I have them here, and 

 will do that. 



872. Then there is the Report on the wages and 

 conditions of employment in agriculture, which you 

 will put in? Yes. 



873. And the Report prepared by the Committee 

 of the Agricultural Wages Board on the financial 

 results and also copies of the Orders of the Agriculi- 

 tural Wages Board now in force? Yes. 



('liiiiniiiin: We are very much obliged to you 

 for your extremely valuable evidence. 



(The Witness withdrew.) 



Mr. J. M. CAIE, Called and Examined. 



874. Chairman: You are the Assistant Secretary to 

 the Board of Agriculture for Scotland? Yes. 



Chairman: You have put in some Tables of Prices, 

 Ac. I will ask Dr. Douglas to examine you upon 

 them. 



876. l>r. l>(i\igl<is : We have only got from the 

 Board of Agriculture for Scotland one paper, namely, 

 a precis of the fixed Government prices for various 

 products? (And the 1913 prices, which of course were 

 not fixed. 



876. Yes, that is so. Perhaps it would be con- 

 venient to ask you kindly to state what you have 

 to say to us, as wo have no precis of your evidence. 



877. Chairman: We have only got the Table of 

 Prices which you put in? That is so. 



878. It wouldj therefore, be more convenient if you 

 would kindly make a statement, as we have no formal 

 precis of your evidence? When the Board were asked 

 by the Secretary of the Commission to submit any 

 available information they had with regard to the 



