TUESDAY, 20th, AUGUST, 1918.

(At Perth.)

Present:

Hon. W. C. Angwin. M.L.A . Hon. J. F. Allen, M.L.C. Hon. R. G. Ardagh, M.L.C . S. M. Brown, Esq., M.L.A T. H. Harrison, Esq., M.L.A.

WILLIAM HERBERT EVANS, Representative of James Bell & Co., sworn and examined:

6191.By the CHAIRMAN: Your firm was one of the acquiring agents in 1916-17?—Yes

6192. Did you have any difficulty with the Scheme officers during that season?—I had most friendly business relations with them, but of course we had divergencies of opinion . 6193. That applied to stacking, etc.?—It ran right through the piece, but there was no real friction.

6194. Please give us your opinions in regard to the handling of the wheat under the Pool?—In 1915-16, when we came to the Scheme, the Minister asked us to do certain things. Prior to that I had seen that it was inevitable that the business must be worked on different lines, that the merchants could not handle the wheat under war conditions. I saw my principals in Melbourne. First of all they did not intend to do business in Western Australia, but in the end they agreed that whatever they did in Victoria they would so also in this State. I asked Mr. Bell on what lines was he prepared to make agreements. He said, "We are going to get as much money as we can and to give them the whole of our organisation and all that we know." After we made our arrangements with the then Minister, Mr. Johnson, he said that he expected us to do that. on those lines I started the business, after accepting and signing the agreement. The 1915-16 season looked like an easy proposition because we had a certain amount of shipping promised to us, in fact ships were passing our doors while we were negotiating. We had already been acquiring wheat in anticipation of the agreement. At a preliminary meeting with Mr. Johnson the question arose as to who was to take the first ship. We worked on that basis, but as we went along and the position developed, it was found that the shipping was not coming as promised. The great trouble I had with the department was the great lack of experience on the part of the officers of the Scheme, one and all, estimable men though they were. If anything out of the ordinary cropped up, there was a sort of feeling of "Hallo!" What is Evans after now?" It engendered the feeling that it was questionable whether I was working for myself or for the Scheme. Quite a lot of wheat was help up which should have been removed. If we had got all our wheat away by the end of September, 1916, as promised, it would have been a very easy proposition. None of my wheat was stacked to stand for a long time. It was stacked just in the ordinary way, to be removed by a certain date. Here we are very short of first class labour. But even with that trouble thrown in, if the officers of the Scheme had followed my repeated suggestion, and shifted a stack that should have been shifted, I do not think we should have had very much difficulty right through the 1915-16 season. The whole thing in the wheat business is this: a boy in the office can run it if everything goes smoothly, but in wheat one is dealing with big figures, and if anything goes wrong, it is necessary to get a move on quickly, to make an immediate decision, in order to save the situation. That has been left untrammelled in regard to the details of how I do my work, but my principals talk mostly about the figures at the end of the year. When we got to the tail end of the season we found that we were unexpectedly carrying over quite a lot of wheat. Some of our stacks were not as good as they should have been. I would ask to have a certain stack removed and sent to Fremantle, but our advice seemed to go for nothing with the officers. The same thing applied even to Mr. Sibbald. When we started the 1916-17 season I put my views very strongly before every Scheme officer I happened to meet, particularly Mr. Sibbald. I said that we ought to shift every stack of wheat that looked doubtful before we get on the 1916-17 season. In no State of Australia can the railways lift more than one bag out of three, as the farmer carts it, in the busiest portion of the season. I impressed on the officers of the Scheme that they should fill up the mills and shift all the old wheat that had to be shifted before the end of November or the middle of December, so that when they came to deal with the new season's crop the railways would not be hauling two harvests apart, old season's wheat that might be weevily would not have to be carried in trucks that would be hauling new wheat on the next journey. I think that is one of the biggest mistakes the Scheme made, namely, not getting the old season's wheat cleared up before starting on the new. I think also there has been a tendency to save double handling. No experienced wheat man will accept more double handling than is necessary, but double handling may be the best way of saving other more important losses. Once s stack begins to fall down it is better to put it on the trucks and get it right away. I think that covers nearly the main ground of the 1915-16 season. I am a crank as regards protection of wheat, and have been taken to task by my principles in the Eastern States. I proved to old men like Mr. Bell that I was right and that they were wrong. Every bag of wheat should be covered, wherever it may be, as soon as it is put into position. No bag of wheat should be received from anywhere unless it is put in such a position that if desired to make the stack permanent it can be made permanent. I have always tried to instil into my sub-agents the principle that if a man in the rush of the day throws a bag down, the chances are that in six weeks' time that bag will still be there. No bag should be removed from a farmer's wagon unless it is put into a railway truck or stacked. Wheat should never be placed on the ground unless it is in such a position that if the exigencies of business demand that it cannot be shifted it can have iron put over it, and so protect it. It must, of course, have good dunnage underneath it. I have here some statistics on the rainfall based in Perth. To get a first class statement one ought to have three or four lots of figures from various agricultural centres. The rainfall in Western Australia is more or less based on Perth. With regard to the January, February, and March rains, these are more or less of the thunderstorm nature. Whilst we might have only 20 points in Perth, there might be 90 at Dalwallinu, or 80 at Grass Valley. Eighty points of rain will never do wheat any good, although some people say that it cannot hurt it. I never saw rain improve wheat. This rainfall constitutes a risk which should be avoided. It is easily avoided. Such rain will catch on to an open stack before the iron has been placed over it, or will catch on to wheat that is in trucks. If the Wheat Scheme had done more to