I.—loa.

120

J. A. CAMPBELL.

it has not been able to anticipate the market, and therefore there is a surplus on the market at times> and that in combination with tho fact that in packing for export the; grower very often hael to pay little attention tei his discards, because they were not fit for export, and they were going on to the local market in an overmatured state, anel the Control Board had to handle that ovennatureel fruit very often. 6. Can you give any instance where in the past the Control Board has brought about any particular reforms ? —There have been several questions put before the fruitgrowers that could have been dealt with more satisfactorily by the Control Boarel having the final authority, and one particular case is with respect to charging for fruit-cases. This matter has be;e:n before the growers, anel they have been endeavouring to bring it about for quite a long while. As a matter of fact, some growers argue that there is no advantage in it, and that the buyer would give them much less for their fruit —namely, 9d. less. The question was pushed both in Auckland and in the: South Island. The whole: matter- was gone into with the retailers and some of the brokers, and a considerable fight took place. In Auckland the association, which consisted of a large: number of Chinamen, broke the whole matter up. If the brokers had stood by the growers it would have been done. I may say that, quite a number of the brokers both in the North Islanel and the South Island were quite willing to make the charge and stand by it, but others woulel not agree. Had there, been a proper authority putting the whole of the fruit through the brokers it would have charged for the case, anel would have' brought about the desired improvement ; but, having no control over the marketing eif fruit, there was no possibility of breaking up the stand that, was.made. 7. In the; event of one province coming in under local control woulel it be detrimental to other provinces ? —No, Ido not see: how it could be:. I think in any case it woulel be an advantage: if all the provinces were to come under the local control, and it would not be disadvantageous to them, so far as I can see for one province only tei adopt it. In fact, it would be an advantage in the matter of marketing the fruit. Yesterday I spoke with respect tei the system eif selling, anel 1 mentioned how the growers were competing one with another unnecessarily. Under a proper system of control there would be a better system of controlling the produce from districts than would be the case under the individual system. 8. Mr. Langstone] Could any improvement be made in the marketing of New Zealand fruit in Englanel ? —I think the system could be considerably improved not only on the English market but on other markets. Of course, different places like certain kinds of apples—for instance, cookingapples will sell more readily in the eastern than in the western portion of London, The West End trade requires a very high-class apple, whereas the East End trade requires the cooking class of apple. So far as the individual brokers are concerned, they have a big demand, for different classes of apples. Some brokers will sell the russet class of apple because there is a large demand, for that class. Cox's Orange: will sell by Messrs. George Munro (Limited) probably more readily. Of course, they will sell any apple that is sent to them. The growers in. selecting their broker will send all their apples tei a particular broker, but they may be sending the major portion of their varieties to the wrong broker, whereas a little adjustment woulel be greatly to the: advantage: of the: shippers at this end. That is information that it is necessary to acquire ; and then you have to have —I do not, say " authority " —some: sort of control over the shipment to bring about an improvement. 9. It would not be very difficult to find out from the growers what the trade is so that you could regulate the supply ? —Yes, it, would be a simple thing to do. There is another point, that has to be taken into consideration, and that is that the size of apples plays a big part. In the City of Glasgow they like a fairly large apple, and in the main large apples are required ; but so far as Englanel is concerned, the people there like, the small class of apple. Supposing large apples were sent to London and small apples were sent to Glasgow, you are doing just the reverse of what you should do. 10. Because of the perishable nature of the fruit is it necessary to have better methods of dealing with it: we have been informed that it is easy to handle butter and meat, because they keep for a very long time, but because fruit is of a perishable nature it needs special handling ? —I may say that owing to its perishable nature, it requires special handling as well as special attention. The question has been raised as to whether the individual could deal with it better than any management could do it, and I say that the work of the individual is in connection with the production of the fruit, packing it according to what is recognized to be the best methods of packing, and leaving the marketing of it alone, because they cannot be regarded as being successful in connection with that matter. The marketing of the fruit can be done very much better by a marketing association. I may say that the large co-operative societies of America were brought into existence for the purpose: of marketing, and they have exactly the same class of fruit to handle and it is of the same perishable nature as ours. The perishable nature of fruit is one of the great difficulties that we are up against, and if it, were not for that our industry would be more; effectively run. 11. Is there any possibility of the Board being so cumbersome that it will rather interfere: than facilitate the marketing of fruit ? There seems to be a fear in the minds of a lot of people that the Board will be eumbcrsomo, and, notwithstanding what has been said, will retard the marketing of fruit, to the detriment of the growers ?—That depends on the provinces taking up local control. 1 would not advise any province to go in for local control in its entirety. As a matter of fact, it, applied in Nelson last year, and I think they have gained some experience in the work; but there are many things that a Control Board can do to the advantage of tho growers without taking over tho whole of the fruit. f2. Has any restriction been placed on proprietary firms wishing to export fruit on account of growers ? —No, there has been no restriction placed on proprietary concerns, and they could export fruit from New Zealand at any time. At the commencement of the guarantee there was a elause to the effect that the guarantee applied to fruit grown and shipped on behalf of bona fide fruitgrowers