man can buy Eastern States potatoes and put them on the market, and whilst the bags contain these potatoes they can go anywhere inside the quarantine area. On the other hand, if a grower happens to put his own potatoes into one of these Eastern States bags, though still keeping it within the quarantine, all those potatoes can be confiscated by the inspector, as has been done in the past. As a matter of fact, two or three growers were brought before the court and the minimum penalty of £5 imposed. The Agricultural Department brought an array of professional witnesses, and the prosecution cost the growers £10 a piece. I do not think that this is what the Agricultural Department was constituted for.

9452. By Mr. VENN: Do you advocate the use of second-hand imported bags? - Yes, inside the quarantine area, but not outside it. If they can be used for Victorian potatoes, why can they not be used for local potatoes? I could give other instances in which growers have been penalised. One man had to forfeit £4 worth of goods and was fined £5 and £4 in costs. It looks as if the Department was out for convictions instead of assistance. The policy of the Department appears to be to catch offenders, and not prevent people from offending. A warning should be quite sufficient for any grower. At Osborne Park, where the finest and best potatoes in the State have been produced, no one ever talks about the matter, and you can take any disease there that you like. To Capel, where they have every disease they can wish for, nothing must be taken.

9453. By the CHAIRMAN: What competition in the way of canning and jam-making is there for your fruit? - There is only one factory established here now, namely, that established by the Associated Fruitgrowers. We are sending out a lot of stuff just now and I believe it is favourably commented upon. Given sufficient encouragement from the growers in the way of capital, we should be able to handle more stuff next year. We endeavoured to get £5,000 to start with and intended to make it purely a growers' concern, with the subsidy derived from the Government. The growers, however, did not support it as they might have done, and most of them, before taking up shares, wanted to know how much fruit the factory would take from them. When we first started we estimated that we could manage with £10,000. There is no doubt that the Canning factory was of great assistance to the growers this year, and that it came in the nick of time. It was started at the end of November. The great trouble with a jam factory here is that we do not grow berries, and to make up the variety we have to import. This year we had a very good crop of apricots, but as apricots are alternate bearers, we may have a smaller crop next year. Our company got over the difficulty of the shortage of different varieties from South Australia. We started at a bad time. Although a tin of jam may be worth 8d. the grower is only getting about 1¼ d. for his fruit. The tin maker gets a good cut, the sugar maker also gets one, and the label maker gets almost as much as the man who produces the fruit. The grower does not by any means get the best cut out of the deal, but the man who makes the tins does the best.

9454. What price is the factory able to pay this season for fruit? - They bought very few apples. For peaches they paid about £7 10s. a ton, and for Bartlett pears they gave 1d. a lb. For apricots they gave up to as high as £14 a ton for the Canning variety. For other varieties for jam, such as Newcastle Earlies, they gave less. The Canning peach fetched up to £10 a ton and the ham peach from £6 to £7 10s. Prior to the Pure Foods Act apples were extensively used for tomato sauce, but since then apples cannot be used for tomato sauce, and if they are used it must be called tomato chutney. Apples are quite as good an article of diet as tomatoes, but they cannot be used in tomato sauce.

9455. On what terms do you sell fruit in your market? - We expect the distributer to pay his account on the Tuesday following the week in which the goods were sold, or the Thursday at the latest. Our sales last year amounted to £1502,000. We sell every day in the week, but poultry is not sold on Monday. We close our books on the Friday evening. Quite a number pay cash. We pay the growers cash and the buyers get nearly 14 days in which to pay. Our rates of commission are considerably less than those in the Eastern States. In South Australia the commission is 7½ per cent., in Victoria the same, in New South Wales 10 per cent., and plus 1d. per case for handling. Our rates are 5 per cent. on vegetables, if in bagged lines, and 7½ on broken lines, such as French beans, celery, etc. Our commission has not changed although expenses have gone up. If the growers could have an auction market in Victoria they would have it to-morrow instead of the system at the Western market, so dissatisfied are they with the present condition of affairs. In Sydney there was a great outcry for municipal markets and a municipal auctioneer. We have shipped largely to the Eastern States this year. The auctioneering system is the correct one. A man knows exactly what his fruit fetched and our books are always open to his inspection. There is no possibility of dealing, which cannot be said in the case of a private treaty. Most of the orchards, however, are growing anything up to 30 varieties of apples, and have one case of each. We have no orchards here like they have in Victoria, where a man can put up 1,000 cases of Yates in one parcel. We are gradually getting up to the standard pack here.

9456. By Mr. PAYNTER: Do you pay any dividends? - We made a profit last year, but lost heavily on our shipping. The profits on the markets just about counterbalance the loss on the merchandise and shipping. We declared a dividend of 6d. per share last year, and this year we shall have a very successful return. We are doing a lot of pioneering work. We have erected packing sheds at Harvey, at Mt. Barker and Bridgetown. Mr. Ramage was brought over here by the Government as an expert packer. We have taken over Mr. Ramage's services as an expert for our packing sheds. When men were leaving for the war and we saw there was likely to be a shrinkage in packers, we established classes for teaching girls to pack, and Mr. Ramage instructs them.

9457. My Mr. VENN: They get 3d. a case for packing? - Yes. We have established a grader for