Part 8

Page 623
image 88 of 100

This transcription is complete

9573. Mr. HAYMAN : I do not think you can educate the people to grow the proper pigs. I doubt whether you can get the quality here.

9574. Mr. VENN : What do you think of the position with regard to the export of lambs?

9575. Mr. GRAY : It will be many years before there is an export trade in lambs.

9576. Mr. HAMILTON : The number of sheep is increasing rapidly here.

9577. Mr. GRAY : Anyone establishing an export business wants to be assured of regular weekly supplies.

9578. Mr. CLARKSON : Was the metropolitan lamb trade well supplied last season ?

9579. Mr. HAMILTON : The price of lambs was exceptionally high. During the coming season lambs should be more plentiful.

9580. Mr. HAYMAN : There will be more lambs at Midland Junction than we have ever had. When they tried the export of lambs before, the returns showed that they realised a few shillings less than they could have been sold for at the Midland markets. Our prices are so high here that it does not pay to export.

9581. Mr. HAMILTON : What is much more necessary is an export of mutton.

9582. Mr. GRAY : The question of export facilities will have to be gone into and if the freezing of mutton is entered upon, the freezing of lamb will follow as a natural corollary.

9583. Mr CLARKSON : How many years will elapse before the local demand is overtaken ?

9584. Mr. HAMILTON : So far as mutton is concerned, it will not be long.

9585. Mr. GRAY : Dealing with stock in transit, there had been instances where stock, loaded at a station and consigned to Midland Junction, had been lost. All agents endeavour to get information as to how many sheep are taken off the trucks there is a discrepancy between the number loaded and that taken off. If there is any discrepancy, we draw the attention of the railway officials to it, then we cut the seals off the truck and keep them and lay a complaint about the missing sheep, but never yet have we been able to get satisfaction. We maintain that if a grower pays for the sheep to be railed, he is entitled to get them dead or alive. A week ago we loaded 110 lambs at Midland Junction for Copleys Siding. The lambs were counted three times before being placed in the trucks, and the trucks were then sealed at Midland Junction and sent to Copley's Siding, where there is a night watchman. One of our representatives happened to be at Copley's Siding when the lambs were taken out and only 108 were counted out of the trucks. One of the truck seals looked as if it had been tampered with, but the railway officials said that the seal had not been tampered with. The Railway Department would not take the responsibility. They said that the man ought to be there when the trucks arrived, to take the sheep off, but it is unreasonable that a man should be present when trucks arrive, especially when there is a night watchman at a place. We want some satisfaction. If we have no reasonable claim we do not harass the Railway Department.

9856. Mr. VENN : The department ignores all claims of loss in transit, then ?

9587. Mr. HAMILTON : The whole matter has been gone fully into with the Chief Traffic Manager, who promised to put on watchers outside the Railway Department altogether, but we have had men outside the yards and in yards and could not detect anything.

9588. Mr. GRAY : My point is, if we have a reasonable claim and can sheet it home, the Railway Department ought to be made to pay.

9589. Mr. HAYMAN : Mr Lord told us that if the seal is broken we should get a railway man and point ot out to him, and the railway official should count the sheep out and then, if there is a shortage, Mr. Lord said he would take the matter up.

9590. Mr. CLARKSON : Will the Railway Department take the man's count at the other end?

9591. Mr. GRAY : The trouble is where sheep are loaded at a siding. Then the trucks are not sealed until they get to the next station.

9592. Mr. HAYMAN : We know mistakes are made in counting them into trucks where they are loaded.

9593. Mr. VENN : Are these losses frequent ?

9594. Mr. GRAY : No.

                                       ( The witnesses retired )
 The Commission adjourned.