100

8.—5.

|j. D. HALL.

Empire —namely, to charge the companies a flat rate on their unelivided profits only, and to include the dividend in the taxable: incomes of the receivers." 1 have made the statement as brief as 1 could, and I am very sorry that I have, not been able to get the condensed statement of the, result of our inquiries with regard to the cost of production, Will you allow me to say a word or two with regard to the matter ? Certainly, whatever you wish to say ? —Generally speaking, I want to emphasize that so far as my position is concerned I am representing the e:lass of farmer that is having the: worst time of any of them now. A substantial number of these; that 1 represent —something like two thousand wheat-growers have been producing their wheat for feeding the country under, first of all, a fixed price, fixed by the, State, and latterly under prices fixed by a Wheat Board. The Wheat Board is a non-Government organization. It was practically appointed by the various branches of the Farmers' Union, and it has negotiated with the miller's for the' price of wheat for the last two years. When I say it is a nonGovernment organization, I mean it did not originate from the Government; but in all other enterprises tho Government has well, rather a dampening effect sometimes. What happens is that when the Wheat Board geies out tei negotiate with the millers, negotiations are, affected mainly by the: cost of Australian wheat imported here. That is maele better for us by the fact that there is a duty on it. That looks all right, and if it were only that it would not matter. But, unfortunately, the governing factor in fixing the price of wheat for this year has been the price of flour. The Australian flour is milled over there at a price which is much less than ours, and can be landed here, at £13 per ton, as compared with £1.5, giving the, figures roughly. The result of that is that it is bringing the: value of our wheat down from ss. 3d. to something like 4s. 7d. There has been a Government embargo em the importation of flour, but that is going to be removed. Mr. Shirtcliffe.] Next year ? Next session, 1 think. But it will, not take effect this year, will it ?—-This year's wheat has all gone, There has not been nearly enough tei gei reiunel this year. We: are importing more than half of the quantity required. We cannot tell yet what acreage will be sown. Every farmer is now making up his mind whether he: will, sow wheat. The main bulk eiught to be: sown in May. A lot of the wheat was sown last year in the spring, and the operation was so unsuccessful that I do not think it will be renewed. And I eiught to qualify also by saying that where land is very fertile so that it will produce on an average over 40 bushels eif wheat per acre;, it will pay the farmer to grow wheat, and he will grow wheat. But as far as fixing the price is concerned, directly that embargo is removed we shall be in the air. We shall be; dependent on the price of Australian wheat, and the community will be depiendent on the value of the wheat for the cost of the loaf. So far as those farmers are concerned, they are mostly affected by the increased cost eif production. There: is nei farming operation in this country that is so expensive as wheat-growing. Roughly speaking, it usoei to be calculated that it cost £1 an acre to put in a crop and £1 an acre to take it out, making the ceist up to £3 an acre, which was a generous allowance:. Now it costs £7 an acre. That is according to statements prepared by a number of farmers for three years and checked over by the Agricultural. College at Lincoln. That estimate has been taken exception to. it has been saiel that that allowance gives you employment for your team in its spare time. But as an economic proposition that is not sound. If your team has not got full employment it is a, very wasteful power unit. A change in the operation is bound to come. 1 shoulel say that the next twenty years will see the elimination of this wasteful power unit. I just want tei emphasize: that the: wheat-grower is working his land under a more heavy cost than any other class eif farming, and is more affected by the indirect taxation in the form of increased cost of everything he has to elo and everything hi: has to buy. When you take: away from him the opportunity tei grow wheat at a price which is reasonably profitable you dislocate his rotatiem, which is a very serious thing indeed. All proper and scientific farming means a reasonable rotation, a fair anel well-thought-out rotation. It has been upset by the war, but unless they get back to it they must inevitably suffer. The wheat-grower is going to be affected in that way, and he is going to be affected also in this way : that he will be the: first to be culled, to use a farming term. It is a drastic and cruel process, but if you are going te> deflate:, with the, present cost of production it is inevitable. A large number of those two thousand men, particularly those who have gone on to the.land during recent years, must go out. Ido not see that there is any help for it. Ido not know what they are to do. If they sell their team, the team is the recognized unit that employs the man. If he is a two-farm man he must have that-team to get the maximum produeing-ability. If you take that team away you reduce that, and, roughly speaking, it means he has got to cut out his wheat altogether. Either he has got to keep his team and work it to the maximum or else he has got to scrap it, and if he does that there is very little for him to do except switch over on to sheep. He may be able to switch over on to dairying. It will means a very serious dislocation and a very serious cost, and it will mean that that man has got to buy his experience over a series of years, and that is also a costly operation. So far as the sheep proposition is concerned, it is possible that a man, instead of growing wheat, may keep a number eif e;wes. That would be practically increasing one department of his own operations that already exists ; but that is not altogether a satisfactory one. He has got to go and buy ewes, which are at a very high price now, and putting those ewes on to the land will mean that in the near future it is quite possible that our healthy land, which has proeluced in the past the best lamb in the world, will be so affected and. will become so dirty —I do not mean with weeds but with overstocking with sheep —that there will be a serious reduction. That has started now, and we are told by Mr. Alexander, of Lincoln College, that if we do go in too heavily for sheep we cannot hope to keep up the quality ; and if we do not it will be a disaster, not only to the farmers of Canterbury, but to the whole of the farmers of the country. I do not propose to deal in any way with any other branch, because I understand that the sheepowners are coming to place their views before you, and I do not think there is really any material difference between what we think. I want to confine myself mainly tei