J. A. NOKRIE. 1

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73. What percentage of your turnover would be in sugar ? —I cannot estimate it. 74. Would it be 10 per cent. ? —I could not estimate it. 75. You cannot tell me. what you pay out per month for sugar ?—No, I am not going to guess. 76. Will you give me what percentage of your turnover is represented by proprietary lines ?— I cannot possibly keep anything like an estimate, because it is mixed up with other goods. 77. Do you get the proprietary lines from grocery-merchants or druggists ? —From the grocerymerchant. 78. But I suppose you are mainly a provision-dealer ?—I do not claim that lam a provisiondealer—l am a grocer. 79. Your turnover in patent-medicine and proprietary lines would be a small proportion of the turnover : would it be £50 per month ? —No. 80. Can you give me any idea ? —No, I could not. 81. Can you give me any idea of the number of proprietary lines you stock ? —lt would take some counting-up. It depends on what you call proprietary lines, because there has been nothing laid down as to what is called proprietary lines. 82. Do you stock Cuticura soap ? —Yes. 83. Palmolive soap ? —Yes, stocks that I bought two years ago. 84. And then you will cease supplying ?—Unless I sign up with their agreement, which I will not. 85. Do you stock Kolynos ? —Yes. 86. What do you sell that at ? —ls. 4d., costing 14s. 87. Do you keep Baxter's Lung Preserver ?—Yes. 88. Wood's Great Peppermint Cure ? —Yes. 89. Johnson's baby-powder ? —I am very nearly out of it. 90. What have you been selling it at ? —ls. 4d. ; the price is fixed at Is. 6d. 91. You will get no more when your stocks are finished ? —Not unless I adhere to the price fixed. I can still get it at 16s. 9d. without signing. 92. Cannot you see that the manufacturer has a goodwill in the product; do you not recognize that ? —Certainly. 93. Do you not see that the goodwill in his article is being damaged if it is cut below what he thinks is a fair selling-price ? —lf it has the quality and there is a fair margin of profit in it it should drop a bit. 94. By cutting ?—-It should not make a scrap of difference to the article. I have a man opposite me who is cutting below me in many lines. 95. What is he selling Kolynos at ? —ls. Id. 96. And Cuticura ? —ls. Id. 97. Are you selling the same goods ? —Yes. 98. Are you selling many of them ? —I get my fair share, and Tam satisfied. 99. Of these particular lines ? —Yes. 100. Well, you are lucky ?—Perhaps I am. 101. You do not issue any price-list? —Only through the newspapers. I keep an Sin. space in both the newspapers down there. 102. And you advertise mostly the ordinary grocery lines ? —This week it consists of groceries and other things. 103. Does it include articles like Kolynos ?—I very rarely advertise Kolynos. 104. McKenzie's are making a loss ?—I do not know what it costs them. 105. You know what it is costing you ? —Yes. 106. If he is getting it at the same price as you he is making a loss ?—Yes. 107. Do you think that cutting like McKenzie's below cost, does any good, or does it not do harm to the manufacturer as well as the particular article ? —Well, I will say in this particular case I do not believe in selling a line below cost. 108. Do you suggest that the cutting of any article can do anything but harm to the manufacturer whose goods are being cut in that way ? —I do not think it does any harm. He is creating a demand for the line by cutting the price. 109. Cannot you see that this is eliminating the sale to the other storekeepers ?—That is not the point. My aim is the more you can turn over the better for all concerned. 110. You cannot see that the manufacturers' interests are being interfered with in the least ? — So far as I can see, when I buy the goods they are my property and I can please myself what I do with them. 111. Your contention is that once you have paid for them you can do what you like with them ? —I can deal with them in any way I like. 112. You think that that is an honourable business —-— Mr. Gresson : This is too much. Ido not object to my learned friend using the word " immoral," but there is no justification for suggesting that this is not the right method of making an honest living. Mr. Collins : I want to give counsel the fullest amount of latitude, but counsel can make up its mind that so far as the evidence is concerned we appreciate the position very fully from Norrie's standpoint—that is to say, he endeavours to make a certain rate of profit for strictly cash prices— and anything that Mr. Myers has got out of his cross-examination has not altered that. Mr. Myers has reached a position where he is assuming a position and is asking Mr. Norrie for his opinion. Mr. Myers : May I point out, sir, that my learned friend's own witness characterized anything of this sort as immoral.

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