On Section 2 the general question of the extension of the Minister's power to regulate agricultural commodities arises. Under the original Act we had a definition in Section 1 which defined an "agricultural product" as "any product of agriculture or horticulture and any article of food or drink wholly or partly manufactured or derived from any such product, and fleeces and skins of animals; but does not include intoxicating liquor." That is now to read: "any animal, milk, cream, eggs, and any article of food or drink wholly or partly manufactured or derived from any such product or from any animal or from milk, cream or eggs, and includes feathers, wool, hides and skins of animals..." In considering the propriety of placing powers of this kind in the hands of the Minister one is bound to examine the Minister's record in administering similar powers on previous occasions. I drew the attention of the Minister to-day in a Parliamentary question to the situation, in which he was acquiescing, which is being created in the egg trade, and I apprehend that if the Minister gets the kind of power set out in Section 2 he will not only acquiesce in situations of this kind, but he will himself actively promote them.
We made a trade agreement with the German Reich whereunder in exchange for trade concessions which we were prepared to afford to them they undertook to take from us a certain quantity of agricultural produce, of which eggs were to form a part. The egg trade is a highly technical business and anyone who is familiar with the business of exporting eggs for a foreign market knows that eggs are divided into grades under two heads. They are first divided into fresh eggs and trade eggs, and every egg, no matter what its size or weight, which is not a fresh egg is relegated to the trade grade.
Fresh eggs and duck eggs are divided by weight into extra selected, selected, medium, pullets and duck eggs. The quality of the eggs in these several grades must be identical and they must be fresh. The retail and wholesale market for eggs finds it comparatively difficult to dispose of medium eggs as compared with selected or extra-selected eggs, and I need hardly tell the House that the market has an even greater difficulty in absorbing trade eggs.
At this time of the year, from the 1st March till the 1st May, the supplies of eggs increase very largely. You are liable to have fowl that were hatched last year beginning to lay eggs at this time of the year, and the result is that you have a heavy proportion of pullets and medium eggs. For other technical reasons into which it is unnecessary to go, you are liable to have at this period of the year an unduly high proportion of trade eggs or, as they are described in the trade, hatched eggs. Egg exporters have always found a very great difficulty in finding a market for those two grades of eggs at this time of the year. They have more or less purchased that market by shipping to the same consignee, who took their trade in pullet eggs and medium eggs, all the selected and extra selected eggs they could lay their hands on. Frequently men in the export trade receive letters of remonstrance from wholesalers in Great Britain or elsewhere complaining that the consignments they are receiving contain an unduly high proportion of trade eggs and small eggs and asking the question: "Are you giving somebody else your extra-selected and selected and passing on the `culls' to us"? You are put on your proof two or three times in the season to satisfy the consignee that he is not getting all the "trade" eggs and somebody else the choice eggs of your collection. That problem is constantly present to those who are charged with the responsibility of the egg export trade of the country.
I questioned the Minister recently as to what he had to do with the Newmarket Dairy Company and he informed the House that the Newmarket Dairy Company was virtually his nominee for the purpose of carrying through certain transactions in connection with the German quota for Irish eggs. On the 9th March the following circular was issued from the Newmarket Dairy Company and addressed from the Department of Agriculture, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin. It says:
Enclosed circular cancels all previous issues and sets out particulars of the grades, quality and marking of eggs and the marking of eggs for the German market. We should be glad to receive on Monday evening next or Tuesday morning by telegram or telephone offers of eggs for Germany in two grades—G.I.A. and G.I.B. No G.I.C. for the present.
Now, the G.I.A. grade are eggs, 120 of which shall weigh not less than 16½ lbs., and the minimum size of egg to be included shall not be less than 2 ozs. 2 drams. That corresponds to the extra selected grade in the statutory terminology of this country. G.I.B. are eggs 120 of which shall weigh 15¼ lbs., and the minimum weight of an individual egg shall not be less than 1 oz. 15 drams. That corresponds to the selected grade. G.I.C. are eggs 120 of which shall weigh 14 lbs. and the minimum size of an individual egg shall not be less than 1 oz. 13 drams. That would comprise "mediums," and possibly pullet eggs. They go on to define the quality, and by their definition of quality they expressly exclude any trade eggs.
We may take it that that circular, which to-day comes from the Newmarket Dairy Company in the Department of Agriculture, would have come from the Department of Agriculture itself had the powers which the Minister seeks under this amending Bill been available to him. At this time, when our whole goodwill in the egg market of Great Britain is at stake, when every wholesaler in Great Britain is on the qui vive to watch exporters in this country lest they should send him the culls of their trade and dispose of the choice grades elsewhere, this circular is issued calling on the exporters of this country to do the very thing which our best customers regard as the most unfair thing any people with whom they are engaged in commerce could do. I think Deputies will agree with me that if you have a body of distributors in Britain who are prepared to trade with you, take all the eggs you can sell them on the British market for the best price they will fetch and give Irish eggs a preference over Danish eggs, Polish eggs or other foreign eggs which are pressed upon them, we should appreciate that as one merchant would appreciate straight dealing with another in the ordinary course of trade. I think we should realise that unless we are prepared to play square with the merchants on our largest market for eggs, in fact our only effective market for eggs, we shall do our goodwill in that market a very deadly damage and we shall lose, not ten, but thousands of times what we shall gain by the German quota. I asked Deputies in this House to remember that it is less than nine months since I read to the House correspondence from merchants in Glasgow informing egg exporters in this country that as a result of activities of the Minister for Industry and Commerce which compelled exporters in this country to ship their eggs in cubicle boxes of native timber——