while the other shovels into it. This shaker of mine is much faster and gives an infinitely superior sample.

5274. What is the cost of that implement?—A carpenter was two days making it. That is the only cost I know of.

5275. By the CHAIRMAN: You say that rats and mice prefer oats to any other grain in the shed?—Yes, if any of the wheat has oats in it mice and rats will concentrate on that and so will let down your stack.

5276. Then it is necessary that those in charge of stacking at our depots should take care to keep out wheat containing oats?—Yes. In that letter which I quoted from Mr. Keys he said that the Westralian Farmers should have a man to look after things. During April their inspector from this zone was relieving for three weeks the local manager here. If we require information as to what is going on in the country, this inspector, being in the office, cannot give it. Also, the local inspector has been in Perth a dozen times, and so to my mind the duties of the wheat inspector of the Westralian Farmers are exactly akin to those of another firm's traveller. Mr. McGregor of the Westralian Farmers came up here about the middle of March. He told me that we had cost the firm a considerable amount in docks. I remarked that his firm did not pay the docks, that it was the grower who paid them. He said, "Take the Tenindewa Co-Operative Society. If we charged them with a dock we would lose their other business." That is exactly what he said. I told him that wheat was a side line with him and his firm, but was everything to me.

5277. The stacks in Geraldton and at Bluff Point are under the control of the Scheme?—Yes.

5278. The Westralian Farmers have nothing to do with them?—No.

5279. Then where is the necessity for their having an inspector?—He should be a wheat man and should go round and instruct the agents as to the acquiring and care of wheat and as to the quality of the docks to make, how to keep their books, and lay their dunnage for any wheat they may be stacking, and to generally keep in touch with them and keep as posted as to statistics regarding the wheat.

5280. You are referring to the wheat season?—Yes: the Westralian Farmers' man, if he has the necessary experience, should be there to advise the sub-agents. However, I doubt if he has the necessary experience. They have a monopoly of the wheat and so it is not necessary for them to employ experienced men.

5281. They have not had a wheat inspector in this district?—Yes, because they get ⅛d. for it. He spends four weeks here in the season and goes to Perth half a dozen times.

5282. They have not had a man at the depot?—On the 16th March they took him away and sent up a boy from the office.

5283. Was not that by arrangement with Mr. Keys to take your receipts?—Since they took my clerk into the head office I know I have had to do greatly increased work.

5284. You have to take the wheat?— Yes, and they got the particulars from us.

5285. That is the arrangement made between them and Mr. Keys?—Since the rush ceased I have been keeping them posted, but in the season when I want the inspector to keep in touch with me he is not available.

5286. By Hon. R. G. ARDAGH: Your complaint is that the system adopted by the Westralian Farmers at sidings is faulty?—The sub-agents are all right, but you must have an inspector to check the sub-agents and keep them up to the mark.

5287. By Mr. HARRISON: The sub-agents require instructions?—Exactly, and the methods should be standardised.

5288. By the CHAIRMAN: I suppose you have a lot of wheat sent direct from small sidings?—Yes, and we weigh it at the depot.

5289. So it is necessary that the Westralian Farmers should have a man there?— They sent a boy from Perth to take samples and send them back.

5290. Being so far from the central office, you have been handicapped more than one situated nearer the central office?—Undoubtedly, and the only consolation is the promptness with which my requests are attended to.

5291. Have you ever found the Westralian Farmers' agents refusing to carry out anything you have asked them to do?— The occasion has never arisen. Here are the statistics which inspectors should always keep posted. (Document handed in.) In that one column (indicated) you find the Westralian Farmers' estimates and in the other column the totals I received. If their inspector was in touch with the agents he could get within a reasonable margin of what wheat was coming forward.

5292. The inspector does not keep in touch with the quantity of wheat sent in?—No.

5293. By Mr. HARRISON: What was your forecast before the season commenced?—200,000 bags. It is rather vague inasmuch as last year we got 50,000 bags from three districts, which have been sent to Midland this year.

5294. Then the lowering of the yield, and the quantity sent to other centres, have been the cause of your empty space in the new shed?—Exactly. The stuff from these several stations came here last year but went the other way this year, owing to the shortening of this zone.

5295. By Mr. BROWN: Approximately, how much came here in 1917-18?—About 175,000 bags to the 30th July. I put into the mill nearly 30,000 bags. That 175,000 bags includes about 5,000 bags of this year's wheat which have gone into the mill through being weevily when it arrived. Then the premium wheat is included in that 5,000.

5296. By Hon. R. G. ARDAGH: They get 6d. per bushel more for premium wheat do they not?—Yes.

(The witness retired.)

HYAM NATHAN, Veterinary Surgeon, sworn and examined:

5297. By the CHAIRMAN: You desire to give the Commission information in regard to the Wheat Scheme?—The only information I can give you is in reference to the weevil. I have been an amateur naturalist all my life. About the 19th May, before the war. I was asked by Mr. Cullen, of H.M Customs, to examine some specimens of weevil supposed to have been imported from Germany. Here is my report, dated 19th May, 1914, on the subject:—

The specimens that you sent to me are the larvae of the beetle, commonly known as the "meal mite." It is quite a common thing to find them in oatmeal in this country. They are very injurious to all vegetable matter. They belong to a large group, and it is difficult from the larvae to distinguish individuals. They belong to the order Coleoptera, sub-order Coleoptera—genuinae. Section Heteromera, family Tenebrionidae. They are the larvae of the weevil that are found in ships' biscuits.

I made a few experiments with the weevil here. I found two kinds, one the rice weevil and the other the meal or corn wheat weevil. The Coleoptera run to nearly 10,000 different species. The two I find here I have sketched from the microscope (document handed in). They were taken with the camera Lucida, so they are really portraits from life. You will notice that the rice weevil has a distinct band on the posterior portion, while the other one has no band. They have no lips. They are simply borers and absorb their food through the proboscis. Also a distinct characteristic is the peculiar way in which their antennae are set on at right angles. I could not understand why these weevils were imported to this country, as they were, by a German before the war. This German has been been interned. He is supposed to be a naturalist who takes birds and animals home to Germany. The Customs stopped the importation of the weevils, but I was informed that previously several lots had got through. Just after the war broke out the German went away to Germany, I was informed, but he has since come back again. When asked why he had imported the weevil from Germany he replied that the weevil was to form food for the parrots he was taking him. But, as we know, parrots do not eat insects, and, in any case, the weevils were imported in a tobacco tin, which would not be nearly sufficient as food. Fearing that there may have been some ulterior motive in the importation of these weevil. I thought it my duty to give you my views on the subject. I am working out the life history of two varieties of weevils we have here. I find