7557. Do you import Comeback wheat for the Kellerberrin mill from any other portion of the State?—Yes. I go wherever I can get it, to the Great Southern and as far down as Toodyay in the eastern district.

7558. As to the contracts you make with Singapore, how is that business dealt with by the Scheme now? Do you purchase the wheat at a premium price?—We pay for it at 6s. 4¼ d. per bushel.

7559. Do you get a commission on that?—No. We have to make our own profit. We buy the wheat, and put the flour at a price free aboard.

7560. And you say that the price varies from day to day?—Not so much now. Millers are now being quoted wheat for three months ahead. We can make forward flour contracts as far as January now if freight was available.

7561. Do not you think it would be better for the Scheme if you were on the same basis as for gristing and if the Scheme could retain that trade and you get that commission?—The present gristing agreement provided that the Scheme should do this Far Eastern trade, and that we should be paid a commission of 2½ per cent.; but Mr. Keys nullified that by having inserted in the agreement that these sales were to be subject to the Minister's approval. As the Minister never approved of any sales, there was no commission paid.

7562. By Hon. J. F. ALLEN: Are your returns you are submitting from the mills confidential?—Yes.

7563. They are for our personal perusal?—Yes.

7564. By the CHAIRMAN: I observe that this gristing agreement was entered into on the 12th March?—Yes; but I would like to point out that we did not get our copy, signed by the Minister, until the 4th October of this year.

7565. I observe that it was signed on the 17th July?—Yes; but the Scheme, as usual, wanted to vary it after it had been made. We had correspondence with them on the subject. I may state that we signed the agreement in April, and sent it to the Scheme with a letter saying that as soon as we had received the agreement back we would put up our bond. We thought that withholding the bond would hasten the completion of the agreement. The Scheme sent us a circular on the 27th May, 1918, reading— Adverting to gristing agreement entered into by you on the 12th March, 1918, I have to advise that in view of the fact that the draft agreement— Mind, there is no draft. The thing was completed. We had agreed on the conditions and everything else—is now before Parliament for ratification and confirmation. That was entirely wrong, because our agreement was with the Minister. It had nothing to do with the Parliament at all. He feels that he would hardly be justified in signing the agreements until the authorising Bill is finally dealt with by the House. It is suggested, therefore, that the execution by the Minister be held over for the present. We could not get the agreement signed. We wrote the Scheme again on the 19th September, 1918, and got this reply— I am in receipt of your letter of the 16th inst. with reference to the bond to be supplied by your mill in accordance with Clause 38 of the above agreement, and in reply have to advise that I shall be most happy to forward you the signed and completed agreement so soon as I am in receipt of a letter from you complying with the conditions set out in my letters to you of the 15th July and 2nd August with regard to Clauses 6a and 19. You will see that you are the only one that is really keeping the bond back, and I am sure you will not desire me to suggest that your attitude, if persisted in, might be regarded as in the nature of a quibble. They wanted to vary this agreement as to the extent that, if the figures we put in in regard to what storage we would allow proved to be different to actual returns, that we would be agreeable.

7566. By Hon. J. F. ALLEN: Was the agreement submitted by the Minister in the form in which you signed it?—Yes. We finally got it on the 4th October.

7567. By Mr. BROWN: That included the bond?—Our bond has been put up by the Yorkshire Insurance Company.

7568. By the CHAIRMAN: Then the letters on the various files asking to be advised when bonds are being put up by the various millers, written in September and early in October, are rather misleading, because the agreement was not signed until October?—Quite so, because whenever it was signed we did not get our signed agreements back until the date mentioned.

7569. I suppose the other millers are in the same position as you are in. One of the letters which appears on the file reads, "I shall be glad if you will advise if you have yet completed the necessary bond." This appears rather strange to the Commission; it is dated the 11th?—I suppose if a miller did not put up his bond it was because he was waiting for the agreement to be signed.

7570. Then the Scheme has been to blame?—Absolutely.

7571. It would be made to appear that the firms were to blame for not putting up the bond?—We signed our agreement several months ago.

7572. By Mr. HARRISON: Do you charge storage for the capacity you have at your mill?—We are supposed to after storing a month's capacity, but we have never charged anything. A month's capacity of our mills would amount to 2,000 tons of flour and 1,000 tons of offal.

(The witness retired.)

The Commission adjourned.