I.—loa.

6

[E. C. REYNOLDS.

12. Do you not think that the bad fruit shipped from the country tells against that article altogether ?—There is no bad fruit shipped from New Zealand, because the Government Grader inspects it. We are very satisfied with the Government grading system, and, although they are certainly strict, they are very fair. 13. You say, then, that any person should bo allowed to ship any quantity of fruit he likes ?— What I said was this : any person should be allowed to ship what ho pleases, and to whom he pleases, provided he does not claim under the Government guarantee, because if this is a Government Act the Government is going to take charge practically of the Control Board. If we decide that we do not want any Government guarantee we should be allowed to ship on our own, and that being the case wo do not see that we should be controlled in any way. 14. Mr. Corriijan.] Has your association an agent or any other form of representative at Home who looks after your interests when the fruit arrives ?—Not previous to the last shipment. This last season Mr. Attwood was at Home and he undertook, if we shipped to him, to see that it wont through the proper channel. 15. Is he permanently residing in London, or is he merely on a trip ? —He is in London temporarily. .16. Do you not think it necessary to have somebody at the other end to look after the industry ? — Personally, 1 think every man should be allowed to ship to a broker if he chooses. A man should be allowed to ship to Liverpool, Hull, Southampton, London, or any other place, if he wants to do so. 17. I agree with you in that regard, but my point is this : do you not think it is necessary to have a representative at Homo to look after the interests of the fruitgrowers of New Zealand ? —You have the High Commissioner doing that all the time, have you not % 18. No, he is looking after the interests of New Zealand as a whole ?—Supposing 1 were to ship to Munro or Bradnum, I think that would, be sufficient. 19. You shipped Home your fruit this year and asked a gentleman to look after your interests ?— He asked me himself. He said that we had various lines of fruit that should be sent to one auctioneer, and various other lines to another, and he said that if we liked he would tell us exactly what to do. Wo said that that wa-s very good of him, and that we would send the fruit to him so that he could arrange for its disposal at Home. 20. My experience in connection with our own industry—namely, the dairy industry—is that our organization looks after the produce and sells it to the best advantage ? —But the. fruit industry is very small. 21. You never know what it is going to come to I—Do1 —Do you not think it would be bettor to leave it until the time arrives when we want it ? 22. Do you not think it is better to profit by the experience gained in our industry ?—Personally, I would prefer to ship the fruit to my own brokers at Home. 23. You consider that Nelson at the present time has the right of two representatives on the Board owing to the amount of fruit exported from there ? —Yes. 24. Can you suggest to us what amount of fruit should be produced in a province to enable it to qualify for one representative on the Board ?—I cannot understand why we arc bracketed with Canterbury so far as the representatives of the Board are concerned. Supposing, for the sake of argument, two members are present at the Board held in Wellington, and one Government member is also present —that forms a quorum ; but by reason of floods or something else happening in the south the members are unable to attend : it would mean that the two members from Nelson could carry anything they pleased. 25. No, I do not think you have any need to fear on that point, because if anything happens that pre vents the members from attending, the other members would wait until the other representatives were able to attend : that has been my experience in connection with any Boards that I have had anything to do with. I think you are looking at the matter from an extraordinary point of view ? — I am not suggesting for one moment that it would happen, but under the Bill it could happen. 26. Mr. Langslone.] I take it you have found the local federation or union of fruitgrowers in your district very useful to you ?—We have had our quarrels with them, and there have been certain things that we did not agree; with so far as the federation was concerned. 27. I mean the local organizations—that is, the fruitgrowers' organizations in Otago ?—There are differences of opinion, as you will find in everything. I may say that we are working as friendly as one would expect. 28. Do you not think that by co-operating, say, with the Meat Board and the Dairy Board, you would bo able to keep the expense down in the matter of marketing your fruit in London ? You will agree that the meat business and the dairy business are pretty big businesses ; that being the case, do you not think there is provision for co-operation ?—You have a very funny lot of different opinions to deal with down in Otago. 29. Mr. Lysnar.] There is provision under the Act for Local Control Boards, and for the different provincial districts to elect those Boards. Might there not be some difficulty in having provincial districts for these Boards, and might it not be better if they were arranged on lines more in keeping with the particular districts, instead of provincial districts ?—I have not looked closely into the question of local control because it does not affect us very much. It may, however, affect us if local control is not carried, and we have export control—then it might be worth while looking into the local markets to see whether we could have a free hand in New Zealand, because the margin of profit is very small. Fruitgrowing has got to the position that we have to depend on Id. or 2d. It has not turned out as was at one time expected —that all you had to do was to grow fruit and become a millionaire. 30. .Mr. Forbes.] You have a co-operative marketing ? — Yes. We have both co-operative marketing and also have a large number of auctioneers operating.