age, it would have to be re-consigned by us, and a new rate altogether is charged from East Perth to Perth perhaps double the freight.

8319. Does the new agreement provide any storage by the Scheme?—I take it so. The conditions of the old agreement remain except those which the Scheme specified as to be altered. The alterations deal, practically , with nothing but the matter of payment for gristing.

8320. Suppose a considerable quantity of bran and pollard over the maximum requirements of the State accumulates , who will find buyers for that excess , the millers of the Scheme?—The Scheme undertake to take all the surplus; but so far as we are concerned that position has never yet obtained, nor do I think it will . The agreement specifies that the Scheme is to remove the surplus so as to prevent any mill becoming over stocked and thus hung up.

8321. You have no agreement to store on your premises a certain quantity of flour for the Scheme?—Yes. The agreement provides that we must find storage for one month's output. On anything above that quantity we are paid storage.

8322. By Mr. HARRISON : Did the inferior quality of wheat , containing gravel, come direct from a country siding ?—Yes.

8323. You have no complaint to make of bad quality wheat coming from any depot?—Yes. In the particular case I have referred to there must have been absolute neglect and carelessness , or else the man responsible was not aware of the class of wheat that must be rejected. This was all in new bags , new cornsacks—evidence that the wheat had been shovelled up , that it was picked up wheat put into new bags.

8324. It is reasonable to believe that that wheat would not have been in any depot , that it would have come from a receiving siding?—I think it was wheat that had been in a stack, and that in the handling there had been burst bags and this wheat had got on to the ground. Then, when they were cleaning up the stack they put this wheat into new cornsnacks and sent it to our mill. I would not like to be very definite on the point, but I am certainly of opinion that it was wheat rebagged at a depot.

8325. By Mr.BROWN : Have you milled at your mill wheat which had been rejected by another mill?—Yes. It must have been rejected wheat , because it came from a mill siding. We milled that wheat. It was merely weevily, and I hold the view that the miller could not reject wheat on account of its being weevily alone, unless it was so badly infested with weevils that to put it through would have been only a waste of time.

8326. By the CHAIRMAN : You would want better wheat than this sample from Geraldton (produced) to grist on the ton basis?—That is an average sample of the wheat which we have been gristing for the last nine months.

8327. That is last season's wheat ?—It is not so bad. I can bring you samples of wheat in which you could not see the grain for dust.

8328. By Hon. J. F. ALLEN: The gristing of such wheat would mean that you would get a very high percentage of offal?—Yes. Last week we had f.a.q. wheat to mill out for export , and we got just over 42 out of it , which is evidence that the mill can do it . But one cannot save the dust. The cyclone fans take up a certain proportion of the dust , but the rest gets clean away. My firm estimate that we have given away about 20 tons of weevil.

8329. By the CHAIRMAN: If you were provided with f.a.q. wheat, the price that you would be receiving for your flour would be better?—No.

8330. On your output you would get one-tenth of a ton more ?—That would be on the basis of the quality of wheat we have been getting.

8331.For every bushel of wheat of better quality that they give you , you will produce 5lbs. more flour ?—Yes.

8332. And that would reduce your charge to a certain extent?—Some of our charges would naturally fall, but our bags would increase.

8333. By Hon. F. J. ALLEN : Would it reduce the capacity of the mill?—Yes.

8334. You would not get as many bushels though?—No. There is 5lbs. of the old wheat that did not go through the mill at all. It was dust and shell.

8335.By Mr HARRISON : Under the new arrangement with regard to gristing, it may appear, as far as the Scheme is concerned, that they are making a saving. Is there any danger of losing more in that saving than the rates of your wages?—Yes, together with disputes liable to arise in regard to wheat that is rejected. If they are going to demand 42lbs. it must be f.a.q. wheat. All the weevil wheat at the stacks now cannot be gristed. Personally, I do not think they would propose it. When they provide f.a.q. wheat and demand 42lbs., and when they send weevil wheat, they will make docks and then have samplers at every mill. While I was in South Australia, I went to a mill there and I found that they were being given the same class of wheat that we are receiving. The Scheme pays for the cartage of the wheat to the bin, it is tipped in the bin and the Scheme sampler is alongside taking a sample out of every bag, and the miller takes another sample and keeps it as a check. Then at regular intervals the samples are mixed and it is decided how much the wheat is below f.a.q. The miller grists, and sells his offal at whatever price he can get, sometimes below and sometimes above the market rates. He also sells the flour, and what he does not sell is taken for the Imperial order. With regard to our own mill, the difference between a small mill without a siding, and a big mill with a siding, is that at a mill like ours we have to cart, and they allow us shunting charges which are saved. These are 2s. on a four-wheeler and 4s. on an eight-wheeler. The same thing applies with regard to what we rail on behalf of the Scheme. It costs about 1s. 4d., and we do our own carting from the rail to the mill and from the mill out.

(The witness retired.)

The Commission adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, 6TH NOVEMBER, 1918. (At Perth.)

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.

LESLIE JOHN WILLIAM NEWMAN, Government Economic Entomologist, sworn and examined :

8336. By the CHAIRMAN : We are informed that you have been experimenting with materials and gases in the matter of cleaning railway trucks of weevils?—Following on a conference with Mr. Sutton, Mr. Pearse, and Mr. Lord, which arose out of the report received from a Government officer at Albany that weevils were attacking fruit in railway trucks, and also out of a letter from Mr. Herbert Robinson, the member for Albany, pointing out the serious nature of the attack, I made certain experiments. Those facts brought to a climax the necessity for the cleaning of railway trucks. The three gentlemen named asked me to carry out experiments to determine whether weevil actually did attack fruit. I had records of experiments made three years previously which proved that the weevil readily attacks fruit, under conditions of force of circumstances, but not by preference. Naturally, the weevil must have a grain in which to propagate. It cannot propagate in fruit. But when there are weevils in a railway truck, and some days have elapsed since the truck had any products in it, and the adult weevils are hanging on the truck waiting for some food supply, then, when fruit is put into that truck the weevils will simply bore into that fruit. I have found hun-