66 



KOVAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



IS Aupat, 1919.] 



THE 



STEUTT, < n 



year you hare taken here is the year from Michaelmas 

 to Michaelmas? Yea. 



1533. Michaelmas, 1917, to M.. h.u Imas, 1918? Yea. 



1534. Turning to your first statement with regard 

 to revenue expenses, you do not offer us any state- 

 ment of receipt*? No". I thought that the expenses 

 wore the important part. 



1535. Taking tln> thre years in the first column. 

 would there on the whole 'be a profit in those tin." 

 years? Yes, there would bo a profit. 



1536. This is a farm devoted to general production :- 

 Yes. 



1537. If you go to the second column dealing with 

 the ver 1918, the increase in your expenditure is 

 roughly round about 93 per cent., is it not? Yes. 



1538. Would you agree that in that year the in- 

 crease in prices was just over 100 per cent. ? If 

 you say so, I will accept it, but I should not like to 

 say of my own knowledge to-day. I should think 

 probably it would be 100 per cent. 



1539. The Board of Agriculture officials have put 

 it at that? I quite accept it if they say so. 



1540. Would you agree that an increase of 93 per 

 cent, in your expenditure and an increase of about 

 100 per cent, in your prices represents that what- 

 ever profits you had in 1912 and 1913 and 1914 are 

 now double, or just over double? Would that be so 

 according to that would that mean that? 



1541. Absolutely? I do not think it works out in 

 that way. I thought it would be the same according 

 to that, would it not? You remember that tho capital 

 would be doubled; there would be double capital to 

 pay on. 



1542. Go to the third column of your figures, in 

 which you state there is a 126 per cent, increase 

 between the year 1919-20 and the average of the three 

 years preceding the war. I think you stated that that 

 may be a little too low. We will take it at 135 per 

 cent, if you like. Sir Henry Rew put in a set of 

 prices for June, 1918, and June, 1919, from which it 

 appears that the average increase in price of all 

 products was 135 per cent.:' What products? 



1543. All farm products? Will you tell me what 

 they are? 



1544. Cereals, wheat, fruit and vegetables, milk, 

 butter, cheese, eggs, everything but taking the three 

 cereals alone it is 135 per cent.? Above w licit:- 



1545. Above tho 1913-14 prices? The Board of Agri- 

 culture papers do not show me that. I have got the 

 figures of the Board of Agriculture here, and if you 

 take the six years previous to tho war, you will find 

 that the present price of wheat is 116 per cent, above, 

 barley 121, and oate 145, I think. 



1546. The statement we received from Sir Henry 

 Rew one day last week gives these figures, that the 

 percentage of average increase 'between 1913-14 and 

 1918 to May, 1919, was 130 per cent, for wheat? I 

 wish he would bring hi* book and show that, because 

 I have his book here and it does not show that. What 

 does he call the price of wheat in 19! - 



1117. 73s.? I thought it was 71s. lid. 



1548. He states his average as 73s. ? Of course, I 

 do not like to put my opinion against Sir Henrv 

 Rew's, but I understood that the guaranteed price of 

 wheat was 72s. That is what I have always heard it 

 was, and I have had opportunities of knowing as much 

 M other people about it. 



1549. Has it not been 76s. during recent months? 

 That i not the Gazette price. 



1550. In any case there is only Is. difference be- 

 tween youmelf and Sir Henry Hew. Sir Henry Hew 

 says 73s. ? I thought it was 72s. I have diw 



it with many people and been present when 

 things have been arranged, and it hns alwav, l-en 

 called 72s., and the difference between 72s. and the 

 price* before the war is 116 per cent, as I n-.nl it in 

 this book here. I have the prie,-, here for 1!H. I9IM. 

 and HM4. I have taken tli ' nt if you 



take the three years 1912, 1913 and 1914 it will I*- a 

 little more- it will be about 12s. Sd. That is 4s. 23d. 

 abatlMl. 



1551. Is the average j i:'i: and 1914 31s. 



Ud. ? I cannot do more than point out to you tho 



Board of Agriculture's books that 1 have hero in 

 I to nt of me. 



1562. In any case if your expenditure for 1919-20 

 is 120 or 130 per cent. <>\er tli:it <>l l!'i:H4. and prices 

 have risen in the same propoi -non pi-oilis have also 

 risen in the same propoi linn- Yes, but there is 

 double the eapital employed, MI that it would not bo 

 any more interest on the capital. I suppose that is 

 all right, but it is a point of view from which I have 

 not looked at it quite. I have not really thought 

 of it from that )>oint of view. 



1553. 1 wi-h MUi would think of it from tluut point 

 of view:' Will you just put it on paper for me 

 exactly:' Supposing the expenses were 1' 1,000 



1554. Supposing your expenses are 5 that is a 

 simpler sum to take and you double them, that is 

 i'li i; and supposing your receipts are 6 and you 

 double them, that is 12. The balan 



tho same proportion? Yes, that is so. I have no 

 doubt you are right there, but as the capital has in- 

 creased also, there is not any more profit at all really. 

 The capital is double. 



Chairman: I do not like <th.at to be taken as a 

 definite Statement of evidence because you have pro- 

 duced no statement of income; you have only pro- 

 duced a statement of expenditure. Figures based 

 on assumption will not go very far in assi.sting us in 

 our quest unless you are disposed <to produce not 

 only your expenditure, but your income. 



Mr. Ashby: If the receipts had been stated here 

 in tho same way as the expenditure is stated., there 

 would have been no need for my cross-examination. 



Cluiii'iiiiiii : Mr. Strutt has not given us his income 

 and does not intend to do so, otherwise he would have 

 submitted it. 



Mr. .-Ls/i'ii/: la. those circumstances, as Mr. Strutt 

 has admitted that there was a profit, I think I am 

 justified in trying to demonstrate that that profit 

 must have increased at a very fair rate considering 

 the increase in the rate of expenditure. 



Chairman : I think that is a statement of yours 

 which Mr. Strutt does not confirm or otherwise as 

 regards his own farms. 



11 'Unrts: I really do not know; I could not. say. 

 What I say is that even if it is so, the capital has 

 been doubled so that really the profit is no larger. 



I'hiiii-iiHin : I should bo delighted if Mr. Strutt 

 would put in his revenue as well as his expenditure, 

 but I am afraid we cannot compel him to do that. 



Mr. .7. M. lli'il<T.i<iit : On a |K>int of order, is "in- 

 set of figures of much value without the other? 



\\'itnett: Do you consider the farmers have been 

 making more money than they ought to have done 

 since the war? 



CltniniKiK : We are dealing with a m 

 piece of evidence, and that is the/ cost of growing 

 wheat on a farm of 285 J acres. If you gentlemen 

 will cross-examine as to whether that > irat.- 



or inaccurate, that is all that it appears !> M" Mi 

 Strutt can tell you at the moment. When you 

 have got to that. cost, then if you know that the 

 \iold. as Mr. Strutt ha* told you, is 5 quarters to 

 the acre, you can make a very "fair estimate of what 

 the result" will be: burl to ask Mr. Strutt io produce 

 his revenue, which ho has not done, unless he is 

 willing to do it, is perhaps a little unnecessary ques- 

 tioning. 



Mr. J. M lliiiil'ixuii: On a ]K>int of order, did 

 \\f get out in evidence from Mr. Strutt that he ad- 

 mitted that his yield was live bushels of wheat per 



]\"iln-fxx: I do not say thnt was my average crop. 

 but for that particular year, 1918, it was 5 ipi.-irter*. 



1556. Mr. .-I ./i/(i/: May we turn to your estimate 

 of tho cost of growing the 191H wheat crop? In the 

 item inte,e-i i.n enpital 15s., how do you arrive at 

 that? That is 5 j .n the capital employed 



per acre. That is just put in at the end. I do not 

 generally put these things in for my own purpose. It 

 is just a rough estimate that I have put in. 



