train service must come from the fruit trade?

11914. Mr. MACFARLANE: In the main, yes.

11915. Mr. PAYNTER: Would it not necessarily mean a slow service if loading had to be done at all sidings?

11916. Mr. SIMPER: If empties were kicked off at the stations concerned on the up journey it would not take long to attach them up on return. Picton is the worst place I know of in the South-West. Considerable delays occur there.

11917. Mr. KEENE: I agree. If they have heavy loading they take it via Armadale to Fremantle. We have not much complaint, however, in regard to transport. It is a matter of delivery in the railway yards. The transport is usually fair and the railways do well. The transport department's liability ceases when the train arrives in the railway yards. The train from the South-West arrives at 6 a.m. and we consider that fruit should be available to us at 7 a.m., but we do not get it until 9 or 10 o'clock sometimes, too late for the market that day. There is trouble in regard to the carriage of soft fruits from the South-West from such places as Bridgetown. It takes the railways from two to three days to get producers' stuff to the market and by the time it arrives it is practically useless. Where we think the chief trouble lies is in the bad facilities for delivery in Perth. At the time of the last glut the railways could not take soft fruit out of the truck in reasonable time and 50 per cent. of it was wasted. What we want, I consider, is three through trains per week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from, say, Bridgetown. For instance, a train leaving Picton should be able to come right through, carrying milk and fruit in the season. Now it carries timber, milk, fruit, and other produce. By the time they have shunted the timber, etc., and got the fruit into the sheds, on account of the quantity of shunting entailed, it is too late. The railway sheds open at 7 a.m. We have a special permit ot get in at 6 a.m. and have three double doors, but there are no men for the delivery as there is, apparently, no night work done. By the time our men have got one load the railways are taking goods for forwarding to the country. My men have to wait until the inwards stuff is uploaded before they can get any more of ours away. This is where the trouble occurs. We say that there should be a perishable shed, where all the perishable stuff should be unloaded and nothing else. We do not consider that there would be sufficient traffic to warrant one through train per day.

11918. Mr. MACFARLANE: There is no milk likely to come to Perth daily from further south than Brunswick. There is another trouble to which I should like to refer. Since the afternoon train to Bunbury has been cut out, the train does not always stop at the places on the way up, and often overcarries milk cans, which are picked by the down train and returned to their proper sidings. Unfortunately, they are sometimes left behind by the down train and farmers having nothing to place their cream in complain to us that the cans have not been returned.

11919. Mr. KEENE: Unless some arrangement is made by the Railway Department for the handling of soft fruit next season, the same thing is going to occur as occurred last year.

11920. Mr. SIMPER: In Fremantle they have an inward and outward shed. There is a lot of fruit going east now and there is one man only to deliver at nine doors, and you will often see as many as from eight to ten trolleys waiting. To get over the difficulty of delivery from the trucks to the lorries or other vehicles, and to facilitate the matter. I consider that the railways might use rollers. This would add considerable expedition to the handling and the railway checkers could take particulars of the stuff as it goes over the rollers.

11921. Mr. KEENE: The system in Perth is that they will not give you delivery of the contents of a truck until the whole of the contents has been tallied.

11922. Mr. SIMPER: I have asked the goods agent in Fremantly not to handle fully loaded trucks on account of the extra handling by their employees. I have asked them to leave the trucks so that we can take delivery of full truck loads, as a lot have to go away by ship, but they unload the fruit on to the floor of the shed and charge us 1s. per truck for doing it. Here is a case (producing documents) in which my client has loaded a truck to the capacity of five tons, and other stuff has been loaded on top of it to serve the railway convenience, and because of this, despite the fact that the truck is fully loaded, it was unloaded. Another thing I should like to draw attention to. When consignments are sent by producers at "goods" rate, and to suit the railway convenience are carried by "parcels," in order to obtain delivery now it is necessary for us to first apply to the parcels office to discover if the goods are there and having ascertained this, then we have to go to the goods office and obtain an order for the delivery, and return the parcels office again in order to obtain the goods. I think it should be sufficient, when application is made to the parcels office and the goods are delivered and signed for, that the Railways should make any subsequent adjustment between the parcels and goods officers themselves.

11923. The CHAIRMAN: We have arrived at this point, that three fast trains per week, say, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the last train arriving early on Saturday morning will provide a satisfactory service for the fruit trade. But there is no relief suggested for the producers of milk?

11924. Mr. KEENE: In other countries all such deliveries are done before 6 a.m.

11925. Mr. SIMPER: If three doors at the central goods shed were provided with rollers it would allow much more satisfactory handling.

11926. Mr KEENE: The conditions at the shed are such that it is very difficult in Perth to obtain material without damage when it is raining, as deliveries have to be taken in front of the open doors. What is really required is a perishable shed where poultry, eggs, milk, cream, fruit, etc., can all be sent and taken delivery of by the vendors. I would suggest, pending the establishment of some central depot, that conveniences should be provided at what is now known as the stone siding in the Perth goods yard.

11927. Mr. MACFARLANE: If a perishable truck was attached to the passenger trains I think that would get over the difficulty to a great extent. I have always held that in the area which I have discussed—Brunswick to Perth—Producers are capable of supplying all the milk necessary for the Perth trade. But, as pointed out, as soon as they get going,