140 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



August, li)13 



The " £. s. d." of Laying 

 Competitions. 



Though our much respected 

 roultr>- Department may not be 

 destined to make history in the 

 matter of the laying competitions, 

 it evidently intends to make money 

 out of any which may be he,d in 

 the future. At least that is the 

 only apparent reason for the pro- 

 posed alteration from six to ten 

 pullets i^er pen. Possibly, of 

 course, it may be thought that the 

 doings of ten birds may be a bet- 

 ter test of a breeder's capacity, 

 but it would certainly be a little 

 difficult to demonstrate this. The 

 only alternative solution, suggest- 

 ed by a correspondent, with a 

 pungent and quite unprintable 

 sense of humour, is that it is a 

 deep laid scheme to disguise the 

 m.ysterious " lead " which was the 

 subject of a recent self-congratula- 

 tory departmental cackle. The 

 disguise presumably being consider- 

 ed necessary lest friendly rivals 

 elsewhere should bec-omei discourag- 

 ed and cjuit the game. 



The acquisition of wealth is of 

 course a highly laudable proceed- 

 ing. There are, however, certain 

 conditions and limitations, failure 

 to recogni/.e and abide by which, is 

 in polite society, variously des- 

 cribed as anything from petty lar- 



ceny to robbery under arms. There 

 are, of course, some people who 

 act on the i)rinciple summed up 

 in the saying, " Get money — ^hon- 

 estly if you can, but any way, get 

 money." Quite a lot of them, 

 however; live at the Stockade, and 

 so may be dismissed from the dis- 

 cussion. It is perhai)s interesting 

 to consider how the financial ac- 

 count stands as between the Gov- 

 ernment and the competitors. 



— Wh&t the Government Gets and 

 Gives. — 



It is not as easy as it should 

 be to get at the £- s. d. of the 

 competitions, the queint explana- 

 tion that this is because it is an 

 educational undertaking being 

 given. Taking the last Rose- 

 worthy for example, it would ap^ 

 pear that roughly the account be- 

 tween the Government and compe- 

 titors stands somewhat as fol- 

 lows : — The Government received 

 £663 for eggs laid in the competi- 

 tion pens. £6~ — a fair estimate 

 of the entry. £20 is man- 

 ure. Thus the grand total is 

 Lyyo. The Government pay £227 

 for food. £52 prize money. If we 

 allow 25 per cent, on the gross 

 value of the eggs (£663) viz., £165 

 for packing, carriage, corn-mission 

 and returns, we certainly cannot 

 be considered otherwise; than li- 

 beral. Labour is rather a ticklish 

 point but lots of people would be 

 glad to take on the job of actual 



attendance at 50/- per week (£130) 

 with an allowance of £50 for 

 clerical assistance, records, etc. 

 Total, £624, leaving a balance of 

 £1126 for rent of groi'.md, interest, 

 depreciation, incidentals, cartage 

 of birds to and from Rose- 

 worthy Station and profit. If these' 

 figures are correct and they are at 

 least substantially so, it would 

 appear that each party to the 

 transaction is doing a reasonably 

 fair thing by the other. This being 

 so why tax the average competitor 

 another £2 each ! He does not at 

 present make a particularly fat 

 thing of the ^competitio'n, there is, 

 of course, always a chance of a 

 tall score and a scope, but is he 

 not already paying a fair thing for 

 this chance ? For the Governtnent 

 to demand more for serv'ices ren- 

 dered seems a little over the odds. 

 Four extra birds means that they 

 pay several ways, in actual cash 

 ouftlay, in cash which would other- 

 wise have been received, in use of 

 breeding stock and in opportunity 

 of sale. On the whole, to insist 

 on this rulei without consulting the 

 other party to the contract, does, 

 as the amount involved is small, 

 seem to smell rather like petty 

 larceny, and as individual breeders 

 are ciuite helpless, also of robbery 

 under arms. It may be said that 

 breeders can leave the competi- 

 tions alone. Ouite so, but we ima- 

 gine they are not organizied to be 

 left alone. 



— How is it Done. — 



It is no secret that there is a 

 good deal of objection felt 

 amongst those who support com- 

 petitions by their entries, towards 

 the proposed change in numbers 

 required but poultry breeders are 

 quite reasonable people and have 

 no more desire than other folk to 

 get more than they pay for. If it 

 is shown to be necessary, we have 

 no doubt that they will submit to 

 the extra charge qiute willingly, 

 though some, we know, would 

 have ]:)referred that it should have 

 taken the form of a slightly in- 

 creased entry fee. It is said 

 that the Government lose money 

 on competitions as at present con- 

 ducted. That they should lose 

 money is not, of course, surpris- 

 ing. It will be remembered that 

 in their other poultry venture, 

 they put up an easy world's re- 

 cord in this respect. The ques- 

 tion is should they do so in con- 

 nection with competitions, it is 

 one on which the juiblic interested 

 in . ])onltry could stand a little 

 enlighitenment. They get 800 of 

 the picked birds -of the State, 

 which have cost, say, £i'2o to pro- 



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