Part 8
Clearances from Industries Assistance Board Name Address Area Returns Value Amount Amount Amount owing Surplus
in Crop owing to to creditors
£ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d £ s d Arkel, P. J. Newcarnie Balance,1915-16 163 17 8 Chaff 150 0 0 2,663 bush. 43lbs 0 2 6 332 18 4 503 10 6 88 18 4 Balance in 1916-17
Pool, £199 15s 6d
646 16 0
Lynch Bross Tree Springs 500 Balance due 2 12 6 9,139 bush 51lbs 0 2 6 1,142 10 3 573 14 3 134 13 5 Warrant handed set-
1,145 2 6 tler to collect 144 2 6
Higgs & Crouch Bruce Rock 500 Balance,1915-16 3,220 bush 49lbs 0 2 6 397 10 0 108 5 8 Balance 1916-17
541 12 0 £242 4s 9d to col-
lect;1915-16, £96
5s, 8d to collect
do. do.
Shean C. Arrino 400 Balance 1915-16 in 5 0 0 hand 4,578 bush, 46lbs 572 5 6 515 8 1 34 4 9 27 12 8 Balance1916-17 and 1915-16 to collect
£242 4s 9d and
577 5 6 £96 5s 8d
£242 4s 9d and £96 5s 8d McCarthy, Peter 1915-16 338 Chaff 22 15 6 683 6 6 465 9 0 10 16 8 207 0 10 1915-16 Teasdale Bross 1915-16 700 10,080, 56/60 1,210 11 9 616 7 5 194 4 4 400 0 0 Lethlean, J. 1915-16 320 5,631, 7/00 869 16 6 455 8 2 172 10 9 241 17 7
You will notice that all these cases represent men who have cropped over 300 acres. Our difficulty is with the man who crops a small area.
8710. Can you express an opinion as to whether settlers are fairly provident in their operations of whether they are extravagant?— We have to deal with both, but on the whole settlers are not inclined to be improvident. At the present time those who are under the board carry on farming operations subject to the supervision of our inspectors, and they are restricted to what we consider a fair ans reasonable thing.
8711. While a good many of the settlers are not altogether provident, I suppose your experience is that your picked men are careful enough?—Yes. A majority of them are careful men, and are out to farm as economically as they can. Our operations being on a large scale enable us to save them a considerable sum. Take bags alone.This year the cost is 8s.8d. to our settlers, and that is a shilling below the average to the outside farmer. With regard to machinery in consideration of our guarantees we get a rebate of five per cent., and the settler gets the benefit of that.
8712. When you agree to find so much money for the season, is the tendency on the part of the farmer to draw it?—Oh no. I have brought some authorities here, and you will find in glancing through them in probably 90 per cent. of the cases the men have not exhausted their credits by a long way.This goes to show that the settlers, as a rule, are no out to exploit the department.
8713. How do you find the system of inspection works.—We find it is absolutely necessary, and that it is working well. In fact the whole system is working smoothly. It would be impossible to carry on without the inspections,.
8714. do you find that the inspectors, as a class are satisfactory?—We have been very careful to pick suitable men.
8715. What do you pay them?—They receive a salary of £204 and a travelling allowance of £150. The permanent inspectors receive £240. The salary is good considering that the travelling allowance is far in excess of what they spend.
8716. Out of the last harvest is it proposed to retain any definite amount towards this year's operations?—Under the recently passed amending Act we can take one-fifth of the indebtedness, and then we set aside £1 and acre for the crop to carry on next year's rent, rates, taxes, and interest. Of course we are not tied down to that. If the board think it advisable we can continue with a man from year to year, but in a majority of cases they will be put on the five years' basis. If the man has any creditors and there is a surplus after crediting him with the fifth, setting aside sufficient to carry on, that surplus will be credited to his account. If we get a good season this year, there will be very little left next year. The complaint against the board in the first place was that it took the whole of its indebtedness from the one year's proceeds. That objection is now done away with. If a man has an ample surplus to enable him to carry on farming operations from his own resources, we naturally expect him to leave the board. But we find it pretty difficult to get them to go off in a lot of cases. One man gave as his reason when we asked him to take his clearance, that we had kept his account . Of course we would not put a man off unless he was in a sound position to carry on.
8717. You seem to suggest that some of the debtors, having had experience of the board, would now like to stay on? —Our difficulty is to keep them off.
8718. What policy do you follow in taking up new accounts?—We deal with each case on its merits.
8719. When the board was reorganised, the statement was made that the accounts that were in good order would be transferred to the Agricultural Bank to be dealt with on purely banking lines?—We found it was impossible for any one to go through and say which were good accounts and which were bad, and it was decided afterwards that we should take over the whole thing.
8720. Are there any other matters that you would like to bring under our attention connection with the Industries Assistance Board?—In addition to the accounts, we paid to creditors our of the 1915-16 harvest, we paid to settlers £ 40,429 under the Third Schedule. There must also be taken into consideration the value of plants still on the holdings of settlers. This has to be regarded as an asset. It is a point that is sometime prone to be overlooked. You can quite see from the large
