L—loa.

8

lE. C. REYNOLDS.

for three years, and then cut the trees out. Ido not say we shall, have to do that, but I have looked into the matter. It is a serious matter to think of cutting out thirty thousand trees, but it may come to that if we were hampered in any way by control. We could carry on our 1,000 acres anything from three to four thousand sheep, and in working it out I found that it would not bo long before the profits from four thousand sheep, plus the apples we could take for the three or four years, would compensate us for anything we had to write off. 54. You recognize, no doubt, that the arguments you are advancing against the Bill —against export, for that is the main thing in the Bill—as to the possibility of ruining the industry, your own firm included, which I certainly do not want to see ruined —are exactly the same arguments that were raised against both the Dairy Control and Meat Control Bills, and yet you do not find that cither of those controls have ruined any one ? —No ; but has the standard of butter, by reason of the pooling, gone up or down ? I noticed the Prime Minister the other day stated in the House that our produce had decreased in standard. He said he presumed it was owing to the bad season. T think myself that it was on account of the pooling. 55. Mr. Corrigan.] But the Dairy Control Board has not taken control yet ? —No, but the standard has gone down. 56. Mr. Nosworthy.] The control is not really operating yet. —If pooling is provided for the fruit industry, I am sure the standard will go down to the lowest possible point. 57. But it is possible to make the grading such that nothing but the best can be shipped. It is a simple matter : it merely means an Order in Council ? —lf control is brought about we shall have to give up all our expert packers. It will kill the standard. 58. What about Nelson, where hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent and nobody is doing any good ?-—I cannot say anything as to that. 59. Mr. Hudson. —With regard to the standard of your fruit: I understood you to say you loft a large proportion of it on the ground and fed it to the pigs : that is, of course, to improve the standard of your fruit ?—lt would not pay us to gather it up. 60. Do you think it would be a good thing to make every fruitgrower do that ? —lt would be the finest thing possible, and it would pay. We turn out beautiful bacon. 61. Mr. Forbes. —How many pigs have you ? —We have fifty, and hope in time to have five hundred. When picking takes place the bad apples are thrown on the ground, and the windfalls are left, and the pigs are then turned in. They clean up everything, and there is no disease left about. 62. Do they root much ? —They root all the cocksfoot round the headlands, and clean them, and they manure the ground at the same time. 63. Do they fatten on apples ? —Yes, beautifully; and then they arc turned on the lucerne. Sydney Rowling examined. (No. 3.) 1. The Chairman.] What are you, Mr. Rowling?—l am. a fruitgrower, living at Riwaka. Mr. Hamilton and myself belong to the Riwaka Association of Fruitgrowers. We field a meeting of fruitgrowers on Monday night, and we were elected to come here and. give evidence on the Bill. I cannot say the exact number present at the meeting, but" there were some thirty-three or thirty-four fruitgrowers, and the meeting was unanimously against the Bill, either for export or local control. I may state that we claim to have the oldest commercial orchards in New Zealand. The Rotherfield Orchard in Riwaka was planted just on fifty years ago, and I have an orchard thirty years old. I have been connected with the orchard industry ever since I was a boy, and have been growing apples and pears for a living for thirty years. Some years ago, before the war, we were exporting, and in those days we exported through commercial firms such as Dalgety's and Buxton and Co., and it was entirely satisfactory. I sold my apples to Buxton's for two years in succession at payable prices—l think it was then 45., 55., and 6s. a ease. Buxton's then approached me and asked if I would contract with them for three years. I did so, and it was entirely satisfactory both from their point of view and mine. Then the war started, and the export was knocked on the head for several years. After the war, all the; export came under the federation, and we were not allowed to export through Buxton's. We were so satisfied with exporting through these commercial houses that we asked the Department to allow us to continue doing so, but; wo could not get permission. About three or four years ago they did promise that we would be allowed to export through these houses, and we made arrangements accordingly —I think it was with Dalgety's. The firm took up the business but, before we started picking we were blocked, and the federation said that if we wanted to export it must all go through them. That did not suit Dalgety's, and'they turned us down, so we had to export through the federation. We in Riwaka, having the oldest orchards in New Zealand, claim, the right to export through whom wo like. We do not want the Government guarantee. With regard to local control, we all know that the apple-growing industry was in a very bad state —-in fact, many people in our district were very nearly ruined —but when local control was mooted last year, Colonel Gray came round, and we thought things could not be much worse, so some of us joined up ; but in our districts —in Motueka, Ngatamoti, Central Moti —I have yet to find one grower who is satisfied with local control. 2. Mr. Forbes.] You have local control now ?—Well, what we call local control, in which Colonel. Gray and Mr. Allan are the chief members. Well, we are not satisfied with that control. Of course, they deserve great praise for tackling the difficulties, but it takes a lot to run fruitgrowing to a good commercial end, and our experience in putting our fruit through the local control has been undoubtedly unsatisfactory. When they came round Colonel Gray reckoned that we were not getting a fair deal, and he reckoned that it was due to over-production and not enough being