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that we are losing our trade here. In running her to the Argentine we can only make £5,000, whereas from a New Zealand trip we would get about £20,000. Mr. Hunt: Are you sure you made a profit at all ? Mr. Lysnar: We are sure, and it is not for you to question about it. You have evidently been talking to some mercantile people by the way you are talking. It made a profit and yon must know that. Mr. Jones: You informed Mr. Smith that you estimated your profit Home at £9,000, excluding any interest. Mr. Lysnar: I deny that. £20,000 profit was handed over to the Bank of Scotland. Mr. Hunt: I would like to see the figures. Mr. Lysnar: I have no objection to showing you the figures. Mr. Jones : You see, Mr. Lysnar, as far as that is concerned. ... 1 was informed by a man, whom I took it was sjjeaking with some authority, that this vessel was to be sold. Mr. Lysnar : What man was it ? Mr. Jones: lam not prepared to say. He said would the Board purchase at £60,000. I said the Board was not buying. Mr. Lysnar: We offered to sell you that boat Mr. Jones: We are getting away from the point. Mr. Lysnar : That boat to-day, running one trip a year, would pay full interest on her total cost of purchase and give a profit besides. Mr. Jones: Then there will be no difficulty in selling her. Mr. Lysnar: I don't know, with the way this Board is acting. Mr. Jones : What position are we in in contracting with the shipping companies ? We made a special clause in connection with the " Codrington " in the agreement, and on those conditions they admitted this boat into the contract. We are prepared to continue that, but we are not prepared, as a Board, to say that we will guarantee that the shipping companies will let them be operated on by anybody else. Mr. Lysnar: Considering the shipping companies ? Mr. Jones : lam considering this Board. lam considering the New Zealand producer. Mr. Hunt: Before entering into a contract you need to have two people to that contract; what you are asking for is an option. When we make a contract with the shipping companies we agree that we will give them cargo, and they agree to carry it. You ask for an option to come out with your ship if it suits you. You give no guarantee that your ship will come out. Mr. Lysnar : You do not take a guarantee of any special date with those people. Mr. Hunt: We want to know that you are responsible people. Mr. Lysnar : Would not the fact that the boat is prepared to come here guarantee for that ? Do you think that boat could leave Home without those arrangements being complete ? Mr. Hunt: You had not arranged any funds to berth her last year. Mr. Lysnar : We had the funds to berth her. Who told you that we had not the funds ? Mr. Hunt: lam not prepared to say. Mr. Lysnar: You are looking for trouble and you will get it. I ask you again, who was it told you that we had not the money to berth her ? Mr. Hunt: I refuse to tell you. I will tell the Board who told me, but I won't tell you. Mr. Jones : Well, you can't deny it. Mr. Lysnar : I do deny it. Mr. Jones : Well, the first clause stands. If is simply an ordinary statement, and no exception can be taken to it. Mr. Lysnar : We cannot agree to that. If you choose to put it in, you put it in, and we will reply to you in writing. That is what I felt at the beginning that we would do no good by this long talk. Mr. Jones : You are prepared to make as many statements as you like, but you object to Mr. Hunt making another statement. You know, as far as the members of the Board are concerned, they have treated your ship in the best possible way, and if that clause had not been in that agreement your vessel would have been wiped out long ago. We saved your ship by that clause ; and I tell you now that you could have been in this agreement for the asking. The position is this : You made a request to us for the boat to come into next year's contract. We are prepared to agree to it on the terms of that clause as set out here. Now you put a better wording to that clause. Mr. Lysnar: We want the clause in the last agreement repeated. . . . You infer . . . Mr. Hunt: Mr. Lysnar, you are not solvent; the mere fact that your works were sold proves that you are insolvent. Mr. Lysnar : We are not insolvent. Mr. Hunt: How did your works come to be sold Mr. Lysnar : Through you. Because your Board consented to it and arranged it. Mr. Hunt: We consented to it. You said we arranged it. Mr. Lysnar : We were here and you consented to it without, hearing us. The mere fact that we own the ship to-day, that, it is only mortgaged for £60,000, which is considerably below its selling value. If your own business was sold it would be sacrificed to-day. Mr. Hunt: The only reason you hold the ship is because the mortgagee cannot sell it. Mr. Lysnar : Because of the financial position in England without question. If the ship did not fetch it the guarantors are good enough for it. Mr. Jones : The position is quite plain, Mr. Lysnar. You say that your company is solvent, and that the people at Home know absolutely the position. Well; it does not matter to them whether that word " solvent "or " insolvent "is there. As far as the Board is concerned, who know nothing about it, we want that protection.