TUESDAY, 16TH JULY, 1918. (At Perth.)

Present: Hon. W. C. Angwin, M.L.A. (Chairman). Hon. J. F. Allen, M.L.C. Hon. R. G. Ardagh, M.L.C. S. M. Brown, Esq., M.L.A. T. H. Harrison, Esq., M.L.A.

BERTRAM MARCUS SOLOMON, Farmer, Quairading, sworn and examined:

2538. By the CHAIRMAN: I believe you desire to make a statement to the Commission with regard to the Wheat Scheme?—The matter with which I wish particularly to deal is in regard to the administration of the Scheme with reference to damaged wheat. The wheat at the bottom of the stack to which I refer was badly damaged by mice and sweepings, etc. At present, this wheat is in the hands of Messrs. Dalgety & Co. The instance with which I was particularly brought into contact was as follows: The stack in question, which was received by Messrs. Dreyfus & Co., and comprised wheat of the 1916-17 season, and situated at Badjaling, about six miles from Quairading, was inundated with water. The three lowest tiers were damaged to the extent of about 2,500 bags. That was the original amount estimated by Messrs. Dreyfus & Co.'s inspector. At that period I in conjunction with other farmers who were also pig feeders there were running short of pig feed, and we wished to obtain that wheat. That would be about October of last year. I endeavoured to obtain some from Messrs. Dreyfus & Co.'s agent, but he referred me to their inspector, Mr. Hayes. I interviewed Mr. Hayes on the matter, but could get nothing from him. He said he did not know what they were going to do with it. The Minister on the eve of his departure for Melbourne then made a statement that the whole of the wheat had been offered to Messrs. Dalgety & Co., and that the farmers should communicate with that firm direct. I immediately wired to Dalgety & Co., and received a reply that as soon as the matter was fixed they would be pleased to quote a price. I could get no further satisfaction. Others were operating as well as myself in the matter. I tried all I could to get some satisfaction in the matter. I wrote to Messrs. Dalgety & Co., and finally had a wire from them to say that their agent would be present at the stack on a certain date. This was towards the end of January that I had this last communication from them. I accordingly saw the agent in Quairading. The agent of this firm is located in York, some 50 miles from the siding in question. That was the man with whom we as farmers had to deal. The agent said, "It is no good talking. I have inspected the stack and intend to recommend that the whole of it be re-conditioned so that we can appraise it." I would point out that the bags were rotten and that the wheat was in various stages of decomposition. I immediately wired to our representative in Parliament advising that the people required this wheat in the district, and that Dalgety's agent had advised the re-conditioning of the wheat, which would be entirely useless and would put a larger expense upon the Scheme, which would ultimately receive nothing from it. Mr. Griffiths promptly saw into the matter for me, and forwarded this communication to the Minister. The correspondence would appear on the file. The manager of the Wheat Scheme communicated with Messrs. Dalgety & Co., to this effect, as nearly as I can remember it. "There are approximately 2,400 bags of damaged wheat in the Badjaling stack. Take steps to dispose of this locally immediately." That was the last we heard of it. We never had an opportunity of getting it. The first thing we heard was that Messrs. Hatch Bros., of Perth, had purchased the lot. They did not dispose of it locally, but arranged for its loading and dispatched to Perth, I was in Perth a little while after. I then derived some information from the manager of the Wheat Scheme in the presence of the Minister to the effect that it was no good talking to us, that we would not pay sufficient for the wheat, and that the Scheme had done better though Messrs. Hatch Bros. I said, "How was it known that we could not buy the wheat at a better price than Messrs. Hatch Bros., because we had no opportunity of doing so." As far as I can remember the manager said that Messrs. Hatch Bros. gave them £175 for the lot. This would represent, according to the records, approximately 2,400 bags of wheat. Later on I had a communication from Messrs. Hatch Bros. in which they stated that the first lot of the wheat put on the market in Perth fetched either 3s. 8d. or 4s. 8d. per bushel, as far as I can remember. This would amount to something approximating 12s. a bag for the wheat. I admit that this would be the best of the wheat, but the whole of it realised about 3s. a bag. I can send you their letter showing that this is what they received for the wheat. As a farmer in the district, and one who is interested in the Pool, I contend that we at all times should have an opportunity of purchasing such wheat locally. Furthermore, Messrs. Dalgety & Co. had no representative whatever within 50 miles of us, and other places in the State are situated in that way. I believe that their agent operates from York to Bruce Rock. He exercises no supervision whatever. Local agents should certainly be appointed to deal with these matters, namely, the shifting of the old stacks of wheat, the supervision of the loading, and the disposal of the damaged wheat. Mr. Keys also said to me in the presence of the Minister, "I will give you my personal promise now that for the future any damaged wheat which is for disposal in your district you personally and others there shall have the opportunity of purchasing." Since then two stacks have been shifted, and we have never had one word of it. Next, as to the administration in connection with the removal of those stacks. The scheme asked for a price. As you are aware, the receiving agents for the previous year have been paid their equity in the stacks; therefore, their responsibility has ceased for the quantity of the wheat that has gone into the stacks. Then the removal of those stacks is left to somebody else. In my position as chairman of directors of the local co-operative company, I was aware that we had a communication to the effect that the Scheme were desirous of shifting Messrs. Dreyfus & Co.'s old, last year's stack at Quairading, and that we were asked to quote a price. We spoke to our lumper about it, and the best price we could get from him for the loading was 1½d. per bag. We quoted 1⅝d., reserving merely ⅛d. per bag to cover our responsibility in supervision of the loading, re-bagging, and so on. we considered that responsibility to be worth at least ⅛d. per bag. Being in Perth before an answer was received to our quotation. I received a telegram from our manager ask me to call immediately on the Westralian Farmers, Ltd., with reference to this stack. I called and saw Mr. McGregor, the gentleman in charge of the wheat department there, and I placed the matter before him. He said, "The position is this: It is out of our power entirely; the Minister says the wheat has to be shifted for 1½d. per