RETURN OF CHAFF BAGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 23

RETURN OF CHAFF BAGS.

DEADLOCK BETWEEN MERCHANT AND BUYER. The system which has pievailed in rejraivl to the return of ta'-ks in sakt= of chaff betwren the local grain broker* ard lmvei^ ha* for a long time b^on a, matter of som« concern to th/s foim<*r owing to the lob-es which they have sustained, and an alt<-ia-t.on in the system was recently judged to be a matter of absolute r^ee-sity. Chalf sack-5 in Dunedin ha\e ahww bo^ii sold extra, but returnable, and under thi-^n.s-tem tli© buyer-j of chaff im\e im<niably kept the soli ing broker* waiting for then bags for c considerable time, in -onie (a^^'i for as long a^ 12 and 18 month-*. In other instances, where bag~ were i<-*tuinod, anjthing, it i«, stated, was good enough to be pawned on to the hdleis, the result beingthat home of the larger firms havf shown losses of up to £200' per year. Returned bags had" been so inferior that they b.aA had to be carted to the paper mill and told at 3s per cwt. For some consideiable time tho celling brokers have been trying to

have this matter placed on an equitable footing from the point of view of both seller and buyer, and recently the Grain Brokers' Association passed a resolution that from August 1 all chaff bags were to be paid extra for and not returnable. As the position stands at present, all the grain brokers, however, are, prepared to purchase chaff sacks at their market value. By introducing this method it was intended to ensure, firstly, that no rotten bags could be pawned off on to the '"seller; and, secondly, that a buyer could not make use of the chaff bags on his own account for months and months, which was invariably done, instead of being returned to the seller. Under this new system most of the ohaff offered at Monday morning's grain sales was passsd in, buyers refusing to accept the terms just laid down by the Grain Brokers' Association.- We learn, - however, that after the auction sales the chaff was disposed of at satisfactory prices, sacks not returnable. Various suggestions have been offered in the direction of overcoming the difficulty. It ie considered that it' would be a good thing if a depot cr clearing house were established, to be run on a share basis, and we are informed that some 1500 £1 shares have already been taken up. If such a depot were set up, the lines on which it is ' proposed it should be run are that 6acks should be charged out to' the buyer at 5d each, and these would be repurchased by the depot from the buyer at 4^d each. This would mean that a halfpenny per sack, would be charged for the use of it." Then the depot would sell the bags to members of the Grain Brokers* Association at s£d eacih, the broker in turn charging the fa-rmer s£d, to cover cartage and interest. Under this scheme there would be* available 3d per sack to run the depot on, for there would be the expenses of rent, lighting, a manager, and assistant labour to meet. It is considered that under such a system the standard quality of the sacks would be raised, and that nothing would be sent out but what was good 1