Scheme. I make that statement quite frankly, and without heat or anything else. I guessed that you had not got that letter. Before I proceed with my evidence, I want also to refer to the evidence given by Mr Paton. I am sorry to say that there is some bad feeling between us and Mr Paton. Let me start by pointing out that when Mr Paton was appointed by the Government, the greatest objections were raised to his appointment by the then acquiring merchant firms; and I say without hesitation that the loudest in condemnation of the action of the Government was Mr Keys, then manager of Dreyfus & Co. Mr Keys said that Mr Paton was entirely without experience, and that the Government had no right to appoint a man without any experience whatever to the position of Government inspector. Here is a letter which I want to put in; it is signed by our Fremantle manager; and if the language is strong I will ask you to let it go a little:— Upon reading the report in to-day's "West Australian" of the evidence given before the Wheat Marketing Commission by Mr R. S. M. Paton, I, as your representative for nearly the past two years at the port, cannot let the lying statements made by this witness go by without some comment being passed. Mr Paton remarks as regards insufficiency of labour retained by us on the North Wharf, which I will deal with later on, and give you full particulars of the labour we had engaged for each individual ship, setting out the time it took to load and clean up after the despatch of the steamer; but first of all I must refer to the statements made concerning the alleged loss of nine tons of wheat when loading the M.S. "Kangaroo." With reference to this boat I might inform you that the day she started to load was the day that I started with the Westralian Farmers, Ltd., as their port representative. We had working for us on the wharf on this boat in particular 25 men and five boys. The work of the boys was in connection with the plugging up of small holes in the bags of wheat at the shore side of the elevators to prevent the wheat falling on to the wharf, during its transit from the stack to the ship's hold. During the loading of this boat we had most exceptional wet weather, barely one hour at a time of two of the working days had we fine weather. This boat from records held in Fremantle received a record despatch—taking only four full working days to load her, and considering the several delays which occurred through the weather and also through the delays in not getting sufficient supplies of flour, which this boat took in conjunction with wheat, I consider the work done was a credit to any firm. Concerning the alleged loss, I wish to make the following comments. The loading of this boat took place on the worst section of the North Wharf, as there were discharging two steamers at the North end, one with coal and the other with phosphate rock. The wharf, from the stack to the edge of the wharf was covered with screenings, and from the ship's side to the wharf under each elevator was an abundance of screening placed to catch any of the grain which might fall through. With the discharging of the two boats at the North end, it means that during the shunting operations which were going on throughout all the time we were loading the "Kangaroo" our screens on the wharf had to be repeatedly put to one side. Consequently any grain that fell through the elevators during this period penetrated the wharf through no fault of ours. After the despatch of the ship our men were told to go under the wharf and pick up all the grain that had accumulated on the girders below. Fortunately, at one particular spot where the grain had fallen through rather heavily, there had been left for some unknown reason a number of Oregon planks which allowed the wheat to accumulate on same and was the means of a considerable amount of saving. I rather think Mr Paton has exaggerated the loss stated, namely, nine tons of wheat. Personally, and after close investigation by myself and our foreman and several others, we estimated that there had fallen into the water at the very most four bags of wheat. If necessary, I can give you further proof to bear out my figures. Mr Paton goes on to remark that the inefficiency of the Westralian Farmers has been greater than any other acquiring agent. With these remarks we do not know what Mr Paton is alluding to as he was not personally present at the loading of all the boats on the North Wharf. We had a record on the North Wharf that our stacks were the best cared for of all on the north side, and I think Mr Paton, in expressing the above remarks before the Commission, is only doing so out of want of knowledge of the business which he is told to look after. Every assistance has been given this gentleman as far as laid in our power, and he even remarked on the way in which we handled our portion of the wheat at the north side. Referring to Mr Paton's remarks that there were many bags of bad wheat and all sorts of muck shovelled into bags in the 1915-16 and the 1916-17 season which I had for some considerable period control of on your account. We had no instances of all sorts of muck go into the north wharf. But there is one point in this respect which Mr Paton has overlooked. Towards the end of the 1915-16 and the 1916-17 season, when the clean up of the country stacks took place and there was not sufficient f.a.q. wheat from the particular siding to make a full truck, a number of bags, which we call pick-ups or sweepings, were put in with the f.a.q. wheat, branded in such a manner by our country agents so that without any trouble to ourselves we were able to abstract the f.a.q. wheat to be put into its proper stack, and the sweepings or pick-ups be stacked by themselves. There was certainly some very bad and inferior grain came to the north wharf for the 1916-17 season, which occurred, as is well known to Mr Paton and others, including ourselves, through no fault of our agents in the country, but was forced through the flood waters damaging several of the country stacks, during the excessive rainy season we had last year, and to make this matter worse some of the wheat, or I might say the bulk of it was received at the north wharf from May, 1917, to July, 1917, was dispatched to us without any covering on it, and in some cases was up to 14 days in transit throughout the rainy season, and on its arrival at north wharf it was not in the best condition, and occurred through no fault which can be attributed to us, as every care was taken on its arrival to see that the wheat was properly cared for and re-conditioned in the best manner possible. There was also a considerable amount of wheat which arrived at the north wharf in April, 1917, and an accumulation of some 331 trucks of wheat was there, which also arrived during the wet period, and which we were unable to load into the "Austral Crag" on account of the strike which occurred on the 21st April through the lumpers falling out with the Harbour Trust regarding time off for smoke-o. The strike ended on the 30th April. During the period of the strike we made arrangements to put under cover at the Government stores, North Fremantle, the trucks that it was possible for the shed to hold, to drain and dry, but, unfortunately, the sheds would not hold the 331 trucks, but only a portion of same, and in consequence of this a further loss accrued through this unforeseen circumstance. On a separate page I am giving you details of the ships we loaded of the 1915-16 and the 1916-17 wheat, together with the total of wheat loaded into each steamer, the number of men employed, the time they were employed, and the number of boys we had, and I think the information given you will be of great assistance when your time comes on the Wheat Commission. Yours faithfully, M. Cohen. Here is a list of statistics referred to by Mr Cohen:— M.s. "Kangaroo," 1915-16 wheat, 25 men, 5 boys, four days loading, 5 days cleaning up; no record of wages at Fremantle. S.s "Cycle," 1915-16 wheat, 29 men and 5 boys, 4½ days