FRANK SISSON.J

35

I.—loa.

" 27. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the foregoing provisions of this Act, neither the Export Control Boarel nor any Local Control Board shall exercise any powers under this Act with respect to the sale of any fruit if the Board is satisfied that there; is subsisting a bona fide contract or arrangement for the purchase and sale of that fruit made: before the passing of this Act. " 28. All moneys receiveel by a Board, by way of le:vy under Part 111 hereof, or in respect of the: sale of fruit, or otherwise howsoe:ver, shall be paid by the Boarel into a separate account at a bank to be approved by the Minister of Finance, and shall be applied by the Beiard as follows :- " (a.) In payment of the expenses, commission, and other charges incurred by the Board or for which the Board may become liable in the course of its business : " (b.) in payment of the salaries and, wages of officers and servants of the Board : " (c.) In payment of travelling-allowances, fees, or other remuneration to members of the Board or to its overseas agents (not being persons permanently employed in the service of the Government)." Neiw, apparently, there are three lots of payments to be: made before the fruitgrowers can got even a small amount of money. Then, subclauses (d) (e) and (/) of the: Bill provide— " (d.) In payment of advances maele by the Board to the owners of any fruit em account of the price of that fruit: " (e.) In payment into a reserve funel from time to time, as the Board in its discretion determines, of such amounts as the: Boarel may consider necessary to enable it to carry on its operations under this Act: " (/.) in payment of tho balance to the owners of the fruit controlled by the Board, in proportions to be determined by the: Boarel having regard to the quantity and quality of the fruit disposed of by it on account of the several owners anel the respective costs and charges inveilved in the disposal thereof." That, to my mind, means absolute pooling; and 1 submit that there is ao other meaning that can be takem out of that at all. As I say, it means pooling the whole: of tho fruit. For instance, supposing there was a lot of fruit produced in New Zealand that was not of very good quality, it woulel mean that that fruit would be pooled with the best quality of fruit from another district, anel that woulel be detrimental to the man who hael the foresight to select good lanel for the production of fruit. All the fruit would be pooled with unsuitable sizes and undersizes, and that would be: of no use: to the fruitgrower who is eneleavouring to produce a good-quality article, lie might just as well be a machine. Then, clause 30 of the Bill goes on to provide — "30. (I.) Every Beiard in its corporate capacity shall in all its operations under this Act be deemed to be the: agent eif tho owners of all fruit of which, the: Boarel has assumed control, and the mutual rights, obligations, and liabilities eif the: Boarel and the several owners shall accordingly be determined in accordance with the law governing the relations between principals and agents ; save that nothing herein shall be construed tei limit the power of the Board to exercise without the authority of the owner erf any such fruit any power with respect to such fruit that may expressly or by implication be conferred on the Board by or by virtue of this Act." That means, I take it, that the Board would be in exactly the same: position as an auctioneer : that is to say, when you put your fruit into the auctioneer's rooms it is at your own risk—no liability attaches to the auctioneer whatever ; but you can go into his rooms and determine when the fruit may bo solel, either to-day, to-morrow, or next week, accoreiing to how the fruit is keeping ; and, as I say, yeiu will be responsible for that fruit. The Board, acceirding to the Bill, incurs no liability, and you do not dare to say a word, and if you do you incur a pemalty of £50. That may be all right in the case of an article that does not perish, but in the case of fruit it depreciates in a week. I submit that the grower himself is the only person who can determine when the fruit is to be; sold and how it is to be sold. I may say that the fruitgrowers in my district arc not millionaires, and they have to sell their fruit according to circumstances : that is to say, perhaps they may want some cash right away and they must have it, and the first thing they do is to look at the fruit, and they say, " I must sell some apples to get some money " ; or, on the other hand, they can see that the fruit will not keep any longer. Accoreiing to the Bill, if it wore brought into law, they would not bo able to do that, because there is a lot of machinery procedure to go through : for instance, there would be the local control to deal with, and, in turn, they would have to get in touch with the control in Wellington who determines what quantity is to be alloweel to be sold at one time. As a matter of fact, they decide on what is to be done, and perhaps by that time the fruit may be rotten. I submit also that the Boarel could not handle thousands and thousands of cases of fruit in New Zealand, unde.r the erne control system—it could not be done. There must be individual efforts in this matter. Every indivieiual grower must have his individual effort concentrated on his particular orchard. Orchards do not pay, as a rule, and that is' the reason why, in my opinion, this Bill is brought forward —that is to say, to assist those people who have orchards at places which are situated a good distance away from the markets and in unsuitable localities —no judgment having been used in the matter at all— and neiw they find themselves in an awful hole, and expect the whole of New Zealand to help them out eif their difficulties by pooling their fruit with that of more favoured districts. Why, the whole thing is so ridiculous that I cannot see how one could explain it any more than I have done sei far as the Bill is concerned. According to the Bill, the moment the fruit is ready to be picked it is not yours—it is somebody else's —that is, it belongs to the Board, to do what they like with it, and there is no redress whatever. You cannot market the fruit when you desire, and consequently it means there is no way of getting any money to carry on your business if it is necessary. To my mind it is impossible for a Board of this description to be worked satisfactorily so far as orchards are concerned —-that is, so far as the Bill is concerned. There is another clause in the Bill that does not appear to me to be very clear, and that being the case I obtained an opinion from Mr. Harper, solicitor, of