MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



187 



20 August, 1919.] 



MR. L. N. GOODINO. 



[Continued. 



4889. With regard to No. 7, can you tell us whose 

 farm that is ? That farm belongs to Mr. Alfred Wells, 

 of East Ruston. 



4890. You have got down the average numher of 

 working days as 267 in Tahle A? Yes. 



4891. It is only on light land that you can get that 

 average ? Yes ; on the heavy land you would not get 

 such a high average as that. 



*392. Of course all these figures are in respect of 

 light land. The whole of the ten concrete cases which 

 you give us in Table A are as regards light land? 

 Yes ; I have taken the light land as the basis. 



4893. I think your figures are fairly accurate, except 

 those in regard to the cost of growing one acre of 

 wheat. I do not think you could thresh and deliver to 

 market at 12s. 6d. an acre. Is that actual cost or 

 only an estimate ? That is taken on the actual cost as 

 near as I can estimate it in my particular case. 



4894. You grow very light crops, do you not ? It is 

 taken on the average return of five coombs to the 

 acre that is 7s. 6d. an acre for threshing and 5s. for 

 delivery. 



4895. For how many years do you think you will be 

 able to bring up the balance-sheets for Riddlesworth ? 

 I can give you 19 years. 



4896. I think it is very necessary that we should 

 have them, and we should like to have pre-war years 

 as well as the years during the war? If you think it 

 desirable. 



4897. Yes, we must have them ; and when you bring 

 them up will you detail them as much as you can in 

 the accounts do you know what I mean? Yes, and 

 I know what it involves. 



4898. I know it means an extra amount of work for 

 you, but it will be very helpful to the Commission if 

 you can supply us with it. You say they are in the 

 hands of some official or other who is undertaking the 

 work, and if things are lumped together it is very 

 difficult for us to arrive at any conclusion from them? 

 I have kept these accounts myself for the last 20 

 years. I have always balanced them up myself and 

 had them audited, and I can bring you the balance- 

 sheets. 



The Chairman : Would you wish them for 19 years? 



Mr. Overman : No, I do not think so. I think if 

 we could have them for the last ten years that will be 

 sufficient. 



The Chairman: For the last ten years ending at 

 1918? 



Mr. Overman : Yes. 



Thr Witness : Do you mean for the whole of the 

 county ? 



4899. Mr. Overman: No, for your own estate? I 

 can get those for you within a fortnight. 



4900. Can you give us the whole of your accounts 

 for the last ten years up to Michaelmas, 1918? Yes, 

 I will do that, but may I say that I would rather 

 come here and explain them to you, if you have no 

 objection? There may be some matters that require 

 explanation, and I would prefer to be here to explain 

 them. 



Chairman : Certainly yon shall come, if you desire 

 to do so. 



II itnrti: There is just this other thing also: I am 

 not sure that I am allowed to make these accounts 

 public to the Press. 



Chairman : .There is no Press here. 



Witness : I have not got Mr. Champion's permission 

 to make them public. He allows me to use them, 

 and I am quite prepared to bring them here for the 

 use of the Commission, but I have not got his per- 

 mission to make them public in any way. 



Chairman : We will undertake not to make them 

 public. All we shall do is to pass them on to the 

 Government. What they will do with them, of course, 

 I cannot gay. 



4901. Mr. Anker Himmons: There is a very wide 

 difference between the best and the worst land of 

 Norfolk, ii there not? Yes, a very great difference. 



4902! The worst is to be found round Thetford and 

 the best, we may takr it, round Wisbech ? I do not 

 know \vli"rr you find the best, but I know where you 

 oiiri find the worst. 



4903. What I want to get is something like the 

 average cost of production of wheat. These figures 

 which you have given us, I take it, cover a very large 

 area ? Yes, some hundreds of thousands of acres in 

 Norfolk: 



4904. It is very essential that we ehould Iiave from 

 men like yourself, whose evidence I look upon ;is most 

 valuable, the average cost of production over as wide 

 an area as we can get it in any one district? Cer- 

 tainly. 



4905. I do not understand how you estimate your 

 cost of threshing at 7s. 6d. an acre? What would 

 be your return there? I take it on the five-coomb 

 average. 



4906. That is five sacks? Yes. 



4907. Is that threshing done by your own tackle? 

 No, I pay Is. 6d. a coomb for threshing; it used to be 

 Is. 3d., but it is Is. 6d. now. 



4908. The average cost of horse keep, notwithstand- 

 ing all the variation there is, comes out very much 

 at the amount you find it is in any county about 6s 

 a day per horse? Yes, in all districts, as near as 

 you can get it. 



4909. It is very close, but there is an extraordinary 

 amount of variation? Yes, there is extraordinarily 

 large variation. 



4910. In attempting to arrive at anything like an 

 average cost of wheat production, it would of necessity 

 involve an allowance of too high a price, perhaps, in 

 the case of the worst land and too low a price in the 

 case of the best? Possibly. 



4911. Although the ultimate return to some extent 

 balanced things? I have not got the actual figures, 

 but I should imagine from what I know that the 

 increased return from the better land would more or 

 less equalise the greater cost of production over the 

 land which is not so good. That is what I consider 

 will be the result of the figures when I get them out 

 and average them. 



4912. What we particularly want to get at is some- 

 thing like a fair cost of production of the various 

 crops that we have to consider, and I am anxious that 

 you should have that in your mind? Yes, I appre- 

 ciate that. 



4913. Mr. Eea : With regard to ybur table showing 

 the cost of keeping a horse, I see you have put the 

 depreciation at 4s. a week? Yes. 



4914. Have you averaged that over the whole of 

 the horses? Yes. 



4915. You would not commence to depreciate the 

 young horse. You would begin to depreciate them 

 only when they were about seven years old, would 

 you not? I take the life of a horse as ten years, and, 

 putting the average value of a farm horse at 100, 

 if you depreciate at the rate of 10 a year you will 

 not be far out. 



4916. Starting with a four-year-old and going on 

 to 14 years? Yes. 



4917. Have you any experience with regard to the 

 life of a tractor? No. 



4918. The figures you give with regard to ploughing 

 with tractors are based on the cost of working over 

 a period of three years? Yes. Those are the figures 

 which have been given me by the tenant farmer in 

 Norfolk who used it. 



4919. Do you know how he works out his deprecia- 

 tion ? He puts the life of the tractor at between four 

 nnd five years, as 'near as he can get it. 



4920. In that case you have to write down a very 

 considerable sum each year? Yea. In the first two 

 years you would want very few repairs, but after that 

 time you want considerably more. This man par- 

 ticularly told me that he had done most of the repairs 

 h'mself. If this were not the case the cost of repairs 

 and depreciation would be considerably higher. 



4921. You would want to write it down altogether 

 in four years at the outside? Yes, I think that is 

 about right. I have shown you the present Govern- 

 ment price for ploughing, which, I think, shows that, 

 compared with the cost of horse labour, you cannot 

 do it cheaper with a tractor, taking one year with 

 another. The advantage of the tractor is that you 

 are able to get your work done at the right time, and 



