enough to pick up and send down for sale for poultry feeding or should it be destroyed, or what should happen to it? As this question has to be raised, I wish to bring a few facts before you. There are on the file complaints in a most discourteous form that we are sending wheat that never should have been sent and that wheat is fetching a profit to the Scheme. There was the Dumbleyung instance, in which there was a profit of 33 per cent.

3229. By Mr. HARRISON : The contention is that had it been disposed of locally you would have had a larger profit?—Which we have been pressing day by day into the Scheme.

3230. By the CHAIRMAN: We want to know who is responsible?—We are merely carrying out our instructions. If our man puts the wheat into bags which, when it gets here, will not fetch a price which will cover the cost of the bags and the handling, then our man has committed an error in judgement. A man comes to the refuse at the bottom of the stack and he has to decide whether this will fetch in the market enough to warrant me in bagging it or will it not. The man may commit an error in judgement and send stuff down that will not fetch a sufficient price, but I may tell you that we have not yet sent a bag of stuff down which has not been profitable. I want refer you to some of these things. Here is a letter which personally I take exception to. It is written by Mr. Hall when the manager of the Scheme and the Minister were in the Eastern States. It says:— I enclose herewith sample of refuse that has been received by Messrs. Dalgety & Co., Ltd., on behalf of the Scheme at the Perth yards as wheat cosigned by your agent in Dumbleyung in truck G9318. Your Mr. McGregor was invited to accompany inspector Gillespie and a representative of Dalgety and Co. to inspect this truck this afternoon, but unfortunately he was apparently unable to attend notwithstanding that half an hour latitude was given. What an absurd thing to say. A man did not happen to be in the building at the time. You can see from this sample that it is not worth the value of the bags, which are so scarce, nor the cost of the railage, and yet the Scheme is expected to pay your company for loading up and consigning this rubbish. Your instructions are to rail all millable wheat to the mill, and all else to Dalgety & Co. for sale. There is the responsibility— I need hardly point out that "all else" means wheat, and not "earth." Actions like this turn the whole marketing of the wheat for farmers of this State into an absolute farce, and under such circumstances the Scheme must decline to pay for expert handling of this sort and must also debit you with the cost of the bags and the railage of such "material." By the strange irony of fate this lovely sample of wheat was protected by a tarpaulin, which are at present too scarce to be able to obtain for the railing of flour to ships waiting at port. That sample which Mr. Hall had selected and sent with the letter was brought into our board room at the monthly Board meeting when we were sitting, and a man at that meeting who has been in the business all his life and knows more about wheat than Mr. Hall, the secretary of the Scheme, ever will know, said, "Do you want to sell it?" I said, "Will you buy?" and he replied, "Yes, it has got a price." This is the letter, dated the 15th June, which was written in reply— Your letter of the 13th inst. is to hand and we are somewhat surprised to note the contents of same. Our representative regretted being prevented from visiting the yard with Inspector Gillespie on Thursday afternoon, but inspected the truck to which you refer the following morning with Messrs. Dalgety's representative. As you are doubtless aware, wheat of this grade has been coming forward to the metropolitan market since the beginning of January last and has found ready sale. We made inquiries and found a buyer for the wheat referred to, but on communicating with Messrs. Dalgety & Co. per phone we were advised by them that they had just sold the parcel 1s. 6d. per bushel. This will show the Scheme a fair margin of 2s. 6d. per bag over and above all expenses besides providing freight for the railways and labour in the country. This is surely better than treating it as refuse, as you suggested. The contents in your letter and the general tone of the same do not, in the circumstances, seem to be quite justified. I want you to thoroughly understand the position, because we are unfortunate. This wheat is coming here and everybody who sees it condemns it. As detailed in that letter by the Government, we were instructed to pick up millable wheat and send it to the mills, and all else to Dalgety's. All else do not refer to wheat with earth in it, but when you send down what Mr. Hall says is refuse and you make a clear profit on it and provide freight for the Railway Department, I contend our agents showed judgement.

3231.Would it not be possible for wheat of that kind to be sold at the siding?—Unquestionably, and we have pointed that out time and again. A mouthful has been made of the price inferior wheat is bringing. We know that anyone who can create a monopoly and put wheat on the market in small quantities, and the people who want it have to get it. I have had to keep f.a.q. wheat on my farm to feed my pigs on, and that was wheat which otherwise should have gone into the Pool.

3232.It would not pay you to send it down here and buy it again?—Of course not. Inferior wheat is fetching more than I expect to get for it out of the Pool.

3233. By Mr. HARRISON: Do you in regard to the suggestion to pick up wheat of an inferior order the agent should have the power to advertise locally that he was going to sell that wheat at a given time so that the farmers would be able to congregate, and that the farmers should take the responsibility of all costs of picking up?—We have suggested that to the Scheme. We will see stuff when we get down there that will horrify you. We know that wheat is being sold at an inflated price, and while it is fetching that price, and the Scheme will not let us sell locally, we have to keep on sending it. What else can we do? We are carrying out instructions and making a profit.

3234. But they did not know that ?—No. When we send down a sample to be valued, in our opinion, Dalgety's are valuing it in accordance with the prices they are able to get for it, which are far too high, and consequently it always shows a margin of profit to send it. Your recent communications indicate that you do not seem to realise the class of material which is finding a sale on the metropolitan market on your behalf by Dalgety & Co., sole agents for inferior wheat. We send you herewith a sample which was valued by this firm this week at 3s. per bag. This valuation is much lower than the valuations we have been having put on such wheat during the season. In view of the risk of malting during wet weather, and as the majority of the grains in the sample are already fermented, not withstanding Messrs. Dalgety's advices, we took upon ourselves the responsibility and risk of wiring our representative not to bag this wheat, but to arrange for a local sale in bulk. Subsequently to our having done this, your Mr. Pearse was in this office and we showed him a sample indicating what we had done, and he seemed to agree with the course we had taken. You will readily understand, however, that it was with some hesitation that we ignored Messrs. Dalgety's valuation and this was the first occasion on which we had done so. Notwithstanding the fact that the metropolitan market is inflated, we would again point out that considerable loss my ensue to the Scheme at any time through pick-ups being delayed in transit during heavy rains, and arriving in a malted and unmarketable condition. The policy of getting a sample submitted from country sidings and dealing with each sample on its merits will not be satisfactory during winter season. Pending receipt of sample at this end, and its valuation by your sole agents for inferior wheat (Messrs. Dalgety & Co.), the value of the parcel may be completely altered owing to a shower of rain at the siding. We stress the urgency of a re-arrangement both as regards inferior wheat of