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68. it has not come under your notice that any of the wool-sales wool heated?—No, 1 cannot say that. 69. Could you trace it if it had been so?—Yes; 1 would have had it stopped, and account taken of it. 70. if you could do that, would you do it—l mean if you could trace it? —Trace the account of the wool-sales wool received ? 71. Any heating? —There is no heating amongst the town wool that I know of. 72. But it came out in evidence that wool had been offered for sale which was damp, and, in some cases, that damp wool haU been packed and sent on I—if that was so that would be done without our knowledge, and, as 1 say, it would require to remain in the shed probably for a fortnight or so before we should detect it after it was dumped, if it came to us from tue wool-sales, we should have to dump it, and it would then generate heat in hail' the time; but before we coulu detect it, it would nave to remain in the shed for probably a fortnight, so, although it may be damp, it may be dumped into the ship and we would know nothing about it. 13. Would you say this, that the wool that is dumped will heat noticeably much quicker than that which is not dumped ( —if it is dumped it will heat much quicker C4. We have had it in evidence that wool has heated that has only been in the wool-shed for four or five hours? —Yes, 1 have had that myself. I have had any amount of wool that has come in and heated after it has been in the shed for a day or so. Wool tnat is only slightly damp, where there is no moisture on the outside of the bales that might generate heat. I have had scoured wool do that, although when it came to us there was no sign of moisture, and yet it generated heat. 75. You can say nothing as to the condition of the wool that came to you from any of the salerooms?—iNo, we do not, practically speaking, take any notice of the internal condition of the bales. We have no means of doing so, and it is not in our province unless our attention is called to it showing heat externally. 1 have had wool that came to me from the feilmongeries which was supposed to be dry, and it was dumped, and remained, say, for eight or nine days, and then my attention was called to the heated state of it. There were nine Pales received at that time, and we examined the bale, and six out of the nine were found to be heated. They were sent back to the wool-scourer in the morning, and they came back the next day supposed to be dry. They were then dumped and left in the shed, and the ship they ought to have gone into refused to take them, and they were left in the shed for a fortnight, and never generated heat afterwards. 76. From your experience, would you say that cases of heating have been more numerous in fellmongered wool than in country wool?—Yes, I should say so. 77. And have you, in respect to fellmongered wool, formed any opinion as to the quality of the wool—that is to say, whether it would be slipe wool, or whether it would be lower quality thai you would call second or third quality? —No; as a ruie, we do not take any note of that—not of the class of wool; but, in years gone by, probably sixteen years ago, we received wool from the Gear Company and Meat Export Company, and we often had a bale that was heated then, and when we found it was heated it was sent back to them, but after the bands were taken off it remained in a collapsed condition like a concertina—no life in it at all. But of later years, since the new process has been used, that has never occurred, in April of this year 1 had a bale of wool that belonged to the Gear Company that weighed over 4 cwt., and it was clumped and placed on one side, and five minutes after the bands burst. It is perhaps dangerous the bands breaking. But that bale of wool stood straight up without a wrinkle in it, showing that the internal portion of the wool must be perfectly dry, otherwise it would not have sprung up. But wTth regard to the fellmongered wool of companies like the Meat Export Company and the Gear Company, we never have any trouble with their wool at the present time. 78. Captain Blackburne] It is the smaller people?—Yes, where they have not the patent appliances, and have to depend on the atmosphere for drying. 79. Mr. Foster] 1 suppose you see the wool arriving in the trucks in the sheds? —Yes. 80. Have you ever noticed the floors of the trucks in a seriously wet condition ? —I have seen the water run through the tarpaulin right through the body of the wool, and lie in the bottom of the truck go right through the centre of the bale of wool on account of the faulty tarpaulins that they have been covered with. 81. It was stated in evidence that trucks sometimes left at railway sidings where there are no sheds have sometimes considerable quantities of water on the floors, and that a careless carter would drop his wool into it?—Oh, no. As a general rule, in a case of that kind, they drop sawdust or shavings on it, or put tarpaulins down. 82. 1 should have thought that in heavy rain shavings or sawdust would be rather mischievous? Yes, if the dampness was of any extent,; but, as a general rule, the trucks are not watertight. 83.• It would be impossible for any considerable quantity of water to remain in the trucks? — As a general rule. The water would run away, but the surface of the truck may be wet. 84. Then it would not do any harm? —It may wet the outside pack. That is what I dealt with in the book. If there is any bale that looks to be wet, we cut a patch out of it and look at it and pull the wool out, and if it is all right we sew the pack up after a day or so; but if it has gone into the heart of the bale, we send out a notice that we consider the bale unfit for shipment, and it is then sent to the fellmongers to be reconditioned. 85. Have you any reason for supposing that the Railway Department does not make proper provision for securing the wool in the wet weather ?—The great fault is, it is not really the trucks, it is where they have got to leave the trucks at wayside stations where they are loaded, that they do not take proper precautions for covering the wool with tarpaulins; and, further, when the engine is drawing the trucks they have the tarpaulins placed so that the wind raises the end up and drives the rain in. ~„„,,,.,,, 86 You just now referred to the damp from faulty tarpaulins ?—Probably nail-holes or something small like that—possibly only a pin-prick in the hollow part of the tarpaulin which you could not see unless you held it up to the light.