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Wheat (1) - Part 2
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Wheat (1) - Part 2
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4195. By Mr. HARRISON : Your firm do not look to the acquiring of wheat as being a payable proposition ?—No, the selling of it. Dreyfus & Co. have what we call branches, or houses, of two kinds. They are the buying and selling houses. When we are buying and then selling we look to the selling house to make a profit. I might mention that in a normal season Dreyfus & Co. handle more wheat through their Paris office than is grown in the whole of Australia. 4196. By Hon. J. F. ALLEN : Is it a French firm ?—Yes. It is a private company. It is not a limited liability company. 4197. By Mr. HARRISON : Do you operate much in cargoes ?—So far as possible Dreyfus & Co. do most of their business through cargoes. Parcel freight market is usually unsatisfactory. Some of the White Star boats carry large parcels at times. 4198. The firm would speculate on any market with any cargo if they saw they had sales for it ?—They are not speculators ; they try as far as possible to sell as they go. They very seldom buy wheat for a rise in the market; they like to keep as square on stocks as they can. In the ordinary dealing with wheat there is a certain amount of speculation necessary. For instance, there are three transactions in the reverse order, but you must complete those transactions before you can get clear, an it is rarely that you can do those three things in one day, so that there is a certain amount of speculation necessary. Freight is taken first in normal seasons at about August or September. The firm then start acquiring freight for the January or February shipment. Very often, with fluctuations in the freight market, heavy losses are entailed ; on the other hand, profits are made. The bulk of Dreyfus & Co.'s business is done outside London and Liverpool. The bulk of the speculation in wheat is done in London and Liverpool. 4199. The Australian Wheat Board pays commission ; what is that based on ?— Is it on a fraction per cent. or a fraction per bushel ?—On the basis of 6s. per £100 on the Imperial Government purchase. Speaking from memory, I think the commission for other sales is 7s. 6d. per £100, and for that the firms had to maintain the Australian Wheat Boar office in Melbourne, or I should say they paid £5,000 towards the maintenance of that office up to the end of last December. They have to pay all the expenses in connection with the maintenance of the office in London, and they have to use all the machinery and all their skilled staff to advise and make sales at the best possible rate. 4200. Do you consider that is a low commission ?—I have never gone into it. I do not know what their expenses are in the London office. 4201. By the CHAIRMAN : When they started first it was one per cent ?—I cannot say. Touching on the caretaking of the 1916-17 stacks in regard to the rate paid to the Westralian Farmers from the 15th April to the 30th September, which I said this morning was one halfpenny; prior to that there was another agreement in existence under which they took the caretaking for three months at one-sixteenth of a penny per bushel. No doubt that was not a payable rate. Although the caretaking of the stack has not been as good as it might be, still by stirring them up and keeping at them we have been securing an improvement. Only yesterday I got a wire from the inspector at Korrelocking, saying that the stacks there had been neglected, and that he is writing on the subject. I mention this to show how important it is that we should have our inspectors going round. 4202. Mr. Murray referred to a letter which the Fremantle Harbour Trust sent you in regard to the condition of the stacks at Fremantle. I think it was early in February ?—Yes. 4203. You did not take control until 3rd December ?—No. 4204. The Harbour Trust did not waste much time before notifying you ?—No. There was a long stack there belonging to the Westralian Farmers. It had been screened with poor quality material which, however, served their purpose in that it stood until their time was up. Early in February, as the result of a severe blow, one side of the stack was virtually unscreened. It was reported to me, and I told the man in charge to get it fixed up. There was no hurry because I rather preferred that the outside of the stack should be exposed to the heat of the sun at that time in order that it might kill the weevil. Apart from those particular screens, undoubtedly the work down there was cent. for cent. better than that done by the old agents. 4205. What responsibility would the Harbour Trust have if the stacks were damaged ?—None. 4206. Then what did they mean by saying that they would not accept any responsibility ?—I do not know. Mr. Stevens and myself do not quite mix, but I do not suppose that that was responsible for the letter. Odd stacks down there have collapsed at times by reason of faulty construction. I suppose the Harbour Trust merely wanted us to understand that in the case of damage they could not be blamed. 4207. Then they built the stack ?—Yes, but they are not responsible if the stacks fall down. Some expense has been incurred in keeping stacks up, but that was not necessarily due to bad stacking, for obviously depreciation of bags is going on all the time. 4208. As a rule we do not get much rain at Fremantle in January and February ?—No. I have a hazy recollection that soon after I took charge of the Scheme a letter came in from the Harbour Trust proposing that they should do certain work. I do not know whether they thought they could get extra work by pointing out that other work was faulty. From my point of view the less work the Harbour Trust does for us the better. 4209. By Mr. HARRISON : What charges are made by the Harbour Trusts of the Eastern States as compared with Fremantle ?—Fremantle stands on its own, because in no other State is the wheat merchant debarred from doing his own work. Take Darling Island, Sydney, which is fitted up in the same manner as Fremantle with gantry elevators and sheds. That belongs to the Railway Department, and the Railway Department leases sections of the sheds to the wheat shippers at £400 per annum. Those sections would hold from £50,000 to 60,000 bags. With that rental the shipper has the free use of all the machinery he requires for loading boats. And all the stacking of wheat is done by the wheat shipper. At Williamstown and at the South Australian ports the shipper does all his own work. He used to do it at Geelong, and I am not sure that any alteration has been made there. Fremantle is the only place where the wheat shipper is not allowed to stack or unstack his own wheat. 4210. By the CHAIRMAN : You have had trouble in regard to the prices charged by the Fremantle Harbour Trust ?—I do not think those prices are exceeded in any part of the world; I mean the charges for wheat storage and wheat handling. They charge us for machine work more than we could do it for hand labour. Their charges are shocking, both for storage and handling. We do not intend to pay them unless we are forces to do so. 4211. Have they made an increase in their handling charges ?—Perhaps not on their schedule rate, but a few months ago they started to read their schedules more closely, and in consequence found that they were entitled to charge higher than they had been charging. assuming that we send wheat to Fremantle and afterwards wish to bring it away to a mill, the stacking sown there and the subsequent loading into wagons is charged at 4d. per bag. A reasonable charge would be 2d. It will be seen that the ultimate destination of the wheat makes a difference in the handling charges. Thus, for wheat put into stack and taken out again and put into truck for shipment, the charge is 3⅞d. per bag. When we are loading up from the stacks at Fremantle for the mills we occasionally find wheat not quite millable, and we pass it along to the re-conditioning shed. The total services on that wheat costs us 4⅜d. per bag. 4212. There are three handlings on that ?—Yes, In addition to those charges they charge 1d. per bag for any re-handling. Suppose we are breaking down a stack for shipment, and we discover a bag with a hole in it. We have our man there to repair such bag. But perhaps the lumper, wishing to reach the next bag, shifts the bag with a hole in it to one side—they charge us 1d. for that as re-handling. 4213. That is pretty tough ?—They are the toughest crowd I have ever been up against.
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