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SATURDAY, 17th AUGUST, 1918. (At Katanning.)
Present: Hon. W. C. Angwin, M.L.A. (Chairman). Hon. J. F. Allen, M.L.C. | S. M. Brown, Esq., M.L.A. T. H. Harrison, Esq., M.L.A.
FREDERICK THOMAS ROPER PIESSE, Flour Miller, sworn and examined:
5739. You are gristing a lot of wheat from the Al-stack?—Yes.
5740. What do you think of that wheat?—It is very uneven; very patchy.
5741. Have you examined the stacks down there?—Yes.
5742. Has weevil gone right through them?—Some of the stacks are in very fair order, those that have been well covered and kept in a dry condition from the initial stacking. Those that have been outside and which were stacking during wet weather are in a bad condition. From some of those outside stacks it would be difficult to take out any wheat that was fit for milling I am basing my assertion in that direction on the fact that I was asked to take a 7,000 bag stack from there by the Westralian Farmers, Ltd., some time ago, by the late manager of the Scheme, Mr. Sibbald. I refused to take delivery of any of it. They were going to load the wheat without sampling or grading, and Mr. Sibbald asked me to do my best to shift some of this wheat as they required the place for Dalgety's wool store. I went to Albany to see what could be done with it. When the stack was opened up they cleared a small place to put the inferior wheat in. They shifted 2,000 bags and the wheat which was put aside as good totalled 150 bags. It was musty, and although the grain was fair order I could not honestly put it through the mill.
5743. Were you one of the original acquiring agents?—Yes.
5744. Did you experience any difficulty with the officials of the Scheme in carrying out your duties?—No, I cannot say that I experienced any great difficulties. There were small differences which I think came about by the creation of a department the officers of which had not much experience in connection with the handling of wheat. I had one stack of wheat destroyed while waiting for the silos. The contractors had not finished their work, and a storm went through. It cost me £470 in hard cash to replace that wheat.
5745. You protected all the wheat you acquired?—Every grain of it, and they got 20s. in the £ for it all.
5746. You had to take full responsibility for the wheat up to the time it was stacked at the depots, as arranged by the Scheme?—Absolute responsibility for the intake and the out-turn.
5747. Until it was shipped?—In our case until it was milled.
5748. An arrangement has been adopted this year whereby the Scheme retain the right to state what stacks in the country should be roofed, and the right to supply dunnage. Do you think it would be better for the responsibility to fall on the acquiring agent?—If you are going to get acquiring agents who know their business, I should say yes. I have seen some very bad handling of this wheat ,and a great deal of the cause of the trouble has been the manner in which the wheat has been handled at some of the country sidings, I mean the way it has been stacked.
5749. Seeing that under the agreement under which the wheat was acquired, the responsibility only lasted until the end of April, you would think that sufficient care would be taken in the building of those stacks to see that they would last that time?—We have always endeavoured to get the heaviest part of the outlying wheat into the mill before the end of May. In those cases we have never built the stacks to stand the weather. When we have wanted to use them through the winter we have roofed and covered them and put on the best men to build them. I would further add that those stacks we have carried over through the winter have been clean.
5750. You think that the time stated in the agreement, the end of April, is not long enough for the responsibility to last?—As we are not able to get shipping, every stack should be built to stay. There should be no temporary stacking. They never know what circumstances they are going to be up against.
5751. Then you are of opinion that where there is a large quantity of wheat it is necessary to put up a shed, and that the shed should be erected in the district where the wheat is?—Before the war broke out we had made up our minds to build three permanent stacking sites at Nyabing, Badjerup, and Dumbleyung. We were going to floor those places and build skillions. Our contention was that we would have to put iron and timber on those stacks. Every year there was a certain amount of labour involved because of destruction taking place. We made up our minds to negotiate with the Railway Department about giving us a lease of the land, with 12 months' or two years' notice on either side should the site be required for railway purposes. We considered we would have saved under ordinary circumstances £300 or £400 a year in the handling, inasmuch as we could have gone there at any time to shift the wheat, winter or summer, because a roof would be over the stacks and there would not have been any possibility of damage. From the Scheme's point of view it would be better if they did that to-day, and if they built skillions at any of those three places, I would be prepared to take a lease for a period of seven years after they had finished with them. That is, of course, if we reverted to a normal state of trading after the war.
5752. Then you are not in accord with the Scheme building large sheds?—The wheat has gone to Tambellup from sidings and has passed through Katanning. At the present rate of milling I could take in about five months' time the wheat from Albany, especially as they are putting 35,000 bags into a sailer just now. I take it also that the Scheme wishes to keep the mills going in the State. The next lot of wheat I will have will probably be from Tambellup. The Tambellup wheat has only just been stacked there. There is the railage there to be considered and the railage back here over the same line. If skillions had been built at the sidings there would not have been any need to haul to Tambellup, and if the wheat were wanted for shipping, it would still have been more economical to have taken it from Dumbleyung or the other places I mentioned than from Tambellup. If it had to go to the mill it would have gone on the direct railage rates. Furthermore, we have a very large site here adjacent to the mill which could be utilised. We suggested that a
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