are 15 per cent. below and in ploughs a good deal more than that.

10250. What is your cash price for an 18-inch disc drill?— We do not make it. Our price for a 17-inch is £51.

10251. Do your machines give every satisfaction?— Taking them right through, yes. There are complaints in regards to harvesters might be classed as merely occasional in regard to winnowers there appears to be a genuine complaint in connection with the construction. The machine does not seem to give a clean sample, and the riddles appear to be very troublesome. Mr Shaw has not yet been able to get on to the winnower properly. We do not sell many, and the overhauling of that machine has been left to the last. Apart from these two machines, generally speaking, there are no complaints at all. I do not think firms can touch us in ploughs. We supply ploughshares at a lower price than other firms, except down in the Katanning and Gnowangerup districts where Drew, Robinson, & Co. run the agency for the Don share. Their price is about 31s. and we cannot land the shares for that. In plate shares we are lower than the other firms. Our shares give satisfaction, although about 12 months ago there was a complaint in respect to some. There has been none since.

10252. Are the prices you charge profitable to you as manufactures?— We make only a few shares ourselves; they are profitable from our standpoint, but we buy most of them. Our last purchase was from Drew, Robinson. Generally speaking, our prices for machinery are not profitable to us as manufactures. The loss would represent approximately five per cent.— that is as our books stand at present.

10253. Can you suggest anything that could be done to put the establishment on a better footing?— In the first place our fixed capital is £94,470 and the working capital £230,530. Of the fixed capital perhaps £44,000 has been wasted in unsuitable building and plant. In other words, the fighting value of that capital are included losses to the 30th June, 1916, representing £68,659. An ordinary company trading would not have been in a position to go on. They would either have called a meeting of creditors, or else reconstructed and written down the capital. I am making a recommendation to the Minister that we have permission to write off our losses and write down our fixed capital to a reasonable extent. My suggestion is that we write off a total of £108,000, for undoubtedly that £108,000 has gone. That would reduce our interest by practically £5,000 a year. If we add to that depreciation on the £44,000 of fixed assets we get pretty well another £2,500, making a total of £7,500 off our working expenses, which is a very big item. A lot of the plant down there is uneconomical. Mr Shaw has made the best use of what he has to hand but I understand that, with an expenditure of £8,000 or £10,000, he could reduce the cost of the output by a very considerable amount. For instance, at the works there are two air compressors, previously worked by a steam boiler at a cost of £15 or £16 weekly. Mr Shaw made an alteration, putting in a chain drive and working them by a motor, the result being that he saved nearly £15 a week on that one item. There are other things like that. We are carrying fairly heavy stocks of stores, approximately £40,000 worth, of which probably £5,000 worth are obsolete, including odd sizes of material purchased mostly in 1914-15. We require to wipe out that lot as soon as we can. We are reducing our clerical costs. Since the inception of the works until a week ago the sales staff was at Fremantle, while the accounting staff was at Perth. It meant a duplication of everything. After two years of battling I have now both staffs in Perth, which represents a saving of from £300 to £500 per annum. These are the general directions in which saving can be effected. I think we shall be able to beat it all right but it will take another two years before we can definitely say, "These works are now in a position to pay."

10254. Have you any details as to the number of machines you turn out?— Yes. Up to the 1st inst. our output has been— Binders 198, harvesters 489, strippers 142, winnowers 108, hay rakes 160, mower 1, harrows 1,114, chaffcutters 115, windmills 113, wheat picklers 53, disc cultivator ploughs 518, cultivators 254, stump jump mouldboard ploughs 448, stump jump disc ploughs 19, seed drills 238. The binders were imported. They are the only line we do not make. We did at one time supply engines but they were not satisfactory, so we passed them out.

10255. Are you able to sell spare parts at lower prices than other firms?— I think we are. I took out our costs for spare parts for four months, and I found the profit was, in December, 57 per cent., in January 63, in February 67, and in March 72. That was only ourselves. A good many other parts of course are unsold and will become obsolete if we alter our machines in any way. The profit on small parts is easily lost in the rendition of accounts for collection. All the overhead costs are considered in the prices charged.

10256. By Mr. PAYTNER: What is the actual cost of making a 6ft. harvester?— In 1916 it was £100 13s. 7d. We sell at £105. Since this material has risen immensely, yet the last cost taken out shows no increase in the cost of the machine. This, of course, is accounted for by the more economical working of the factory. In 1916 the cost of a 15in. disc drill was £47 0s. 5d., and our selling price was £48. All charges are in that. We sell both for cash and on terms. The prices I have quoted are for cash. We average eight per cent. for terms.

10257. By Mr. CLARKSON: Do you employ distributing agents in the country?— We have depots at Narrogin and at Geraldton. Both men in charge are experts, and in addition to selling they can fix up machines. We have sixteen agencies in the country. The remuneration is five per cent. We are now arranging for further organisation. We are dealing with the West Australian farmers and the co-operative braches. We are going to give the whole of our country representation to the West Australian farmers and the co-operative branches and pay five per cent, commission to the co-operative branches and two per cent, over-riding commission to the West Australian farmers right through the country.

10258. What are the chief contributing causes of the excessive dearness of spare parts?— There is the difficulty in collecting small amounts plus the cost of carrying heavy stocks liable to obsolescence.