APPENDIX 1.

Commissioner's Office, Perth, 12th July, 1917.

Dear Sir,

When before the Commission on the 5th instant, Mr. Hope was asked to advise as to this Department's objections to farmers utilising the railway telephones at unattended sidings or stations to enable them to transmit their orders, etc.

The Commissioner desires me to state:—

(1.) The Telegraph Act expressly confines all telegraph or telephone business to the Postal Department, but the Railways are specially excluded from this provision so far as their own business is concerned. At attended stations, when messages are accepted, half the cost has to be handed over to the Postal Department.

(2.) But apart from the foregoing, the main objection is from the Railway point of view. It would be in the highest degree unwise and unsafe to permit the use of telephones at unattended sidings, unless by some authorised Caretaker, as both the working and the safety of the trains might be endangered by interference at one of these places.

(3.) At unattended sidings where telephones are provided in connection with the train working, the Commissioner agrees that, where a Caretaker is necessary, he would be prepared to favourably consider any person recommended by the Farmers and Settlers' Co-operative Society for the position of Caretaker and telephone attendant for the transmission of public messages. Charges to be collected by the Caretaker and transmitted to the accounting station, together with fill particulars, and the original message.

Yours faithfully, C. B. RUSHTON, Secretary for Railways.

The Chairman, Royal Commission on Agricultural Industries, Perth.

APPENDIX 2.

STATEMENT MADE BY MR. STIRLING TAYLOR BEFORE THE COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE.

Mr. Taylor said:— I desire to specially place before the Commission the position of those engaged in the Agricultural Industry in regard to the tariff. I am aware that it is usual for those who are supporters of the "protective policy" to charge freetraders with endeavouring to injure manufacturing industries and with really being enemies of the country. This is certainly false, and we are just as anxious for the establishment and development of all industries, which are a national benefit, as are those who are opposed to us. The question with which we are confronted is whether protective tariffs are necessary or efficacious in the establishment of staple industries, and whether they are not more injurious than otherwise to even the particular industries they are intended to benefit. Further, we will consider the question as to whether, in the sacrifices which the natural and primary industries are called on to make, the general growth of industry is not impeded and individual and national loss inflicted.

For the purposes of comparison it is well to consider the manner in which our great primary industries were established and developed. Our greatest success has been in the production and export of wool. Those engaged in this industry entered into it fully prepared to meet the world's competition. Their product had to compete for buyers in the world's markets at the world's prices, and knowing this they, by every possible means, endeavoured to produce and succeeded in producing wool which would command the highest price. They recognised that it is quality which commands success in trade and not cheapness. We know that today Australian wool is sought after by the best buyers in the world, and at a higher price than that of any other country, and this success has been achieved by the wool growers, who have throughout aimed at producing the highest quality and commanding the highest price. In this connection, we had a few years ago the position fairly put as between the protectionist and the freetrader, when the question of removing the duty of 8s. per lb. on wool was under discussion in the United States of America. A protectionist protested that it would be impossible for the highly paid American farmer to grow wool against the competition of the cheap, naked, black-grown wool of Australia. The reply to the freetrader was that what the American wool farmer must do was to improve the quality, by following the example of the Australian, and improving the breed of his flocks, paying not a hundred dollars for a ram but thousands of dollars as the Australian had done.

Our wheat growers in the same way entered into the world's markets against the products of all countries, whether the highly paid American or the low paid Indian or Russian. And, like the wool growers, they aimed at offering the highest quality and securing the highest price.

When our butter producers started an export trade they knew that unless they sent quality they would fail, and they aimed at a Danish and Irish standard, which commanded the highest prices in the world's markets. Their herds were culled, high price bulls were imported and the strictest attention was given to the breeding of dairy cattle. Factories were established, the most highly skilled workmen secured, and the most scientific methods of production were adopted. And to-day, thanks largely to co-operative efforts, our butter stand high in the British markets in spite of the disabilities of distance and delay in offering to buyers.

Australian frozen lamb is sought after in the old country, but our sheep farmers who desire trade in that direction have been obliged to give special attention to quality and suitability, and by cross breeding produce what the world requires.

Our fruit growers have likewise established themselves in the world's markets, and can boast that their product is of the highest quality and commands the highest prices.

It is clear that in establishing and maintaining trade the protectionist bogey of cheapness does not enter. The world seeks efficiency and quality and these alone will subsist.

With all the handicaps of distance, high freights and charges, the primary producers of Australia succeeded in establishing themselves in the world's markets, at the same time having to overcome the difficulties and expense of pioneering, and this without Government coddling, but by individual and collective industry and enterprise. And it is to those industries that all secondary industries look and must look for growth and support. To establish the primary industries and to give them their place in the world's markets required industry and enterprise of the highest order. And not alone in the primary industries but in the spheres of sport, of music, of art, Australia has been capable of competing and has