Wheat (1) - Part 2

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ject, Mr. Wake, Mr. Lockhart, and Mr. Duffell. At the present time, the Scheme dispose of all their inferior wheat or all they know they have, to Dalgety & Co., who have the right to do so. This runs to the 30th September. Prior to that right being given to Dalgety & Co., it used to be sold by various agents, sometimes with the consent of the Scheme, and sometimes without. In other words, on cleaning up a stack, if there would be inferior wheat for sale, efforts would be made to sell it locally. It was realised that it was waste of time trying to sell it in the country, and that with five or six people handling it the prices obtained were considerably lower than the commodity was worth. Eventually, the Wheat Scheme arrived at the conclusion▬ Mr. Sibbald was manager then▬ that it would be advisable to call together the acquiring agents and ask them to suggest one firm to handle the inferior wheat. Mr. Sibbald specially consulted the acquiring agents because it was thought possible they might have an equity in the matter. They suggested Dalgety & Co., though the Westralian Farmers considered that they should have been appointed. Dalgety's have been handling this class of wheat for years. After the appointment of Dalgety there was a marked improvement in the prices realised for inferior wheat, with the result that after a time the poultry people complained that they were being charged too much. From time to time I got samples from the Perth yard and watched the prices, and, except on one or two occasions, I do not think any wheat has been sold at above its fair value. On the other hand, for various reasons, we have occasionally had wheat sold below its value. I notice that one of the witnesses declared that it was on account of the appointment of the Commission that we had reduced the price.

4285. Mr. Murray referred to a truck of wheat from Dumbleyung, 30 bags of which you had declared contained 80 per cent. of dirt. I sent down to the department to get a letter regarding this. The letter was not on the file but was found on your office table ?▬I was told about that.

4286. Mr. Murray said that the price brought by that wheat showed a profit which, he claimed, proved that it could not have been rubbish. it brought 2s. per bushel ?▬None of the 30 bags. They brought 1s. 1d. Murray, in arriving at his so-called profit, takes the whole of the truck. The man who bought the wheat at 1s. 1d. cleaned it, washed it, resold it, and showed a loss of 30s. on the transaction.

4287. Then it would not pay the cost of freight ?▬If it was worth only that, it was not worth bagging. It is possible that a smaller percentage of it might have been just worth picking up.

4288. Why was not that letter filed ?▬I do not know. I understand there is an incomplete minute of mine at the bottom of it. Yes, here it is. I make a practice of initialling and dating my minutes. In this case there is neither initial nor date, and so, I gather, that my attention was abruptly taken from this letter, and that getting mixed with other papers, the letter got overlooked.

4289. Have definite instructions been issued to the Westralian Farmers that they must send the whole of the inferior wheat to Dalgety's ?▬Yes.

4290. That it must be sent to Perth ?▬Not necessarily. They will get into touch with Dalgety and Dalgety will advise as to where the wheat is to be sent.

4291. Will it be sold locally if the local people want it ?▬Yes, but it would probably be found that the local buyers would not give as much for it as the City buyers.

4292. Will they have an opportunity ?▬I cannot say that they always get an opportunity at present. They have had it in the past. Our prices for sales of inferior wheat are based of f.a.q. value of 4s. 9d. The farmer more often bases his price on his 3s. advance on f.a.q. it would almost pay the farmer to feed his f.a.q. wheat to the pigs rather than buy his inferior wheat from us and have to cart it.

4293. You found that a fair proportion of this inferior wheat being trucked to Perth was not suitable for the Perth market ?▬Yes. I examined some trucks about three weeks ago myself. One was from Dalwallinu. Never in my life have I met wheat that smelt like it.

4294. On the 30th June the Scheme wrote about that truck ?▬That is no the truck I am referring to, for it was later than that date.

4295. Apparently yours could not have been worse than the one referred to in this letter ?▬The one I saw was just about the limit. I gave instructions that it should be auctioned next day, that if not sold it was to be given away, and that if no one would have it it was to be carted to the tip.

4296. In the letter I refer to you state that Dalwallinu had sent a lot of burnt wheat, weather damaged, unfit for anything, and which, with the extra rain on it was steaming and more like old decayed stable manure than anything else. Mr. Murray said they were able to reply to you and point out that it was sent to Spencer's Brook, where it was taken into the reject stack. The number of the truck was G2678. I want you to find out whether it is the same truck as the one you wrote about on the 14th June ?▬Probably that was the same. I will look it up and make sure.

4297. Your letter does not state that it arrived at Spencer's Brook, but seems to indicate that it arrived at Perth ?▬The truck I refer to was afterwards sold for 10d. a bag. I told Dalgety's to send it away.

4298. We examined a truck last Friday. We thought the greater percentage was fair pig wheat ?▬That is what we complained about. We do not say that whole consignments are rotten, but that there is a certain amount of rotten matter in each consignment which spoils the price we get for the whole. We want them to let us have the good wheat and keep the rotten stuff on the spot.

4299. When the wheat was put up to auction the person bidding bids on the bad bags ?▬The bad bags attract more attention than the good bags.

4300. What is the cause of that ? Is it owing to want of experience on the part of those who send it down ?▬I think that many of the trucks look worse on arrival at Perth on account of the heavy rains, and on account of the fact that much of it is loaded up in a wet condition with wet earth. The earth being sodden, the wheat starts to ferment. If there was more care in loading at the sidings, and the men had more experience, we would have less difficulty.

4301. By Hon. J. F. ALLEN: Does the sub-agent gain any advantage by sending the stuff down ?▬It is all against him. In many cases he only gets three half pence a bag for putting it up. There is no ulterior motive in this. I saw one bag in the Perth yards in which there was a hole some six inches in diameter. I put my trier in as far as I could and came across nothing but pure mud. It does not pay a man to bag that sort of stuff.

4302. By Mr. HARRISON: That becomes a debit on the Scheme ?▬If the price realised does not cover the cost it is a debit on the Scheme. There is very little of this sold on which there has been a loss. I believe there is a consignment at Fremantle which has no merchantable value, and which will eventually have to be dumped.

4303. I have an idea that the sub-agent believes that he cannot trade in that wheat, but must truck it ?▬Surely no man would truck valueless material down.

4304. By the CHAIRMAN: They can send samples of this bad stuff down and have a price fixed upon it ?▬They can submit samples. By such an arrangement they might be able to sell the wheat at 3s. a bag, or in another case at £5 the lot, the man buying it undertaking to clean up the stacking site. We have done that in the past.

4305. Are they aware of that ?▬The Westralian Farmers know it.

4306. The Westralian Farmers appear to be under the impression that this wheat must not be sold ?▬Not without consulting Dalgety's. They have sold it at Doolakine without consulting us. They also sold some wheat at Trayning on the same conditions.

4307. By Mr. HARRISON: Then the sub-agent must communicate at once with Dalgety's ?▬The Westralian Farmers will not allow him to do that.

4308. The correct course is to communicate with Dalgety's ?▬The sub-agent can communicate with the Westralian Farmers, who will pass on the communication to Dalgety's.

4309. I contend that there is pick-up wheat which is a better asset to the Scheme at the local centre if there