asked the Minister for Lands if he will state when he sold poplin ties at 2/- per dozen, why he sold them at this price and to whom, and what steps did he take to ascertain whether a better price could be obtained before the sale was made.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sale of Poplin Ties.
The ties in question were rejected as being unsaleable goods by the marketing organisation. Some were the product of defective poplin made at Annagry; others were made from cotton material purchased for the learners at the outset of the tie-making experiment. The ties themselves were badly made, and in some cases had been ripped up and remade. When the offer of 2/- per dozen was received in October, 1934, it was submitted to the then Secretary of the Department who, with a full knowledge of the position, approved the acceptance of the offer as a means of realising some small amount on stock regarded as waste. It would be contrary to Departmental practice to disclose the name of the purchaser.
Are we to understand from the Parliamentary Secretary's reply that, in fact, the ties sold at 2/- per dozen were largely the material upon which the boys had been practising before they were allowed to make ties out of genuine poplin? If that is so, will the Parliamentary Secretary ask the Minister, whom he now represents, to come before this House and withdraw the suggestion he made here, that good poplin ties manufactured at Annagry had had to be sold at 2/- per dozen? From the Parliamentary Secretary's reply to my question, it now emerges that there was no truth whatever in that allegation.