150,000 WORDS ON VEGETABLES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 53, 26 November 1941, Page 6

150,000 WORDS ON VEGETABLES

Price Inquiry Evidence' MASS OF OPINION FOR TRIBUNAL TO SIFT More than 109,000 words were recorded in evidence, exclusive of furnished statements, when witnesses from various parts of New Zealand placed their views on the high cost of vegetables before the Price Tribunal, which recently concluded a seven-day Investigation into this question. This mass of evidence placed the investigation in that select group of proceedings which, apart from any other reason, are distinguished for the amount of painstaking work which is required in lengthy judicial or semi-judicial matters. The additional words in the supplied statements of various individuals and organizations would bring the total wordage recorded to near 150,000. lor Press purposes this had to be reduced to an average of 1200 words a day or an approximate total for the whole proceedings of 10,000 words. On a column basis this represented approximately a page and a half, assuming that the reports of tlio seven days’ proceedings were printed in one issue of a newsThree typistes attached to the Price Tribunal staff did a strenuous job in shorthanding the evidence and then typing it to a total of. 170 foolscap pages, each of approximately 600 words. They worked at the proceedings in half-hour shifts. As each one was relieved she would set about transcribing and typing her notes in another office. The tribunal sat only two days in the first week of the Investigation; it sat from (Monday to Friday inclusive in the second week. This made heavy work for the three shorthand typistes, but when the tribunal resumed each morning it would have before it a complete typed record of the evidence ?of the previous day. During the sittings jt was being continuously supplied with a record of the evidence taken. The witnesses at the inquiry,, attended from as far north as Auckland, and in the south'from' Christchurch, either at their own expense or thatref ? their organizations. Representative Hutt valley growers were present, daily, having to attend to their work early in the morning before the hearing started and after it concluded late in the afternoon. The witnesses for the European .fruit retailers in Auckland and Wellington were each proprietors of one/man businesses, which had to be without thei direction for several days. Important executives of auctioneering-firms, and other interests, both State and'private, also gave valuable time in attendance. The work of the tribunal did not cease with the last witness It is engaged in the tremendous task of sifting the thousands of words of evidence and statements from which it will eventually draw conclusions for its report to the Minister of Supply, Mr. Sullivan.