The words " So far as is reasonably practicable " were taken out in sub-section (2) on the last day. I ask to have those words reinserted. I explained some of the reasons the last day. In the first place there are some very big individual corporations or bodies in the country. I mentioned the last day quite a number of them. There is one railway company, a flax mill, one spinning mill, one oil refinery, one bottle factory, one textile and one dyeing factory. There is a match factory. As regards those, if any one of them were to object we could not get true statistics and we could not publish them. The London Customs Bill of Entry publishes daily the names of all important importers, the quantity of goods imported, the name of the ship, the port from which and to which it sails, etc. We give to any enquirer the quantity of any specific article imported by each importer. We do this on the principle that competition will bring us better or cheaper imports. We treat exports differently, and we would not give anyone the particulars of commodities exported by a particular exporter. As far as I can judge it is only in those cases where there is a possibility of identification that there could be objections. If it would interfere with the provision of really true statistics then I think the statistician ought to have the right to over-rule any objections. I think he ought to be the judge in the event of a conflict, which is unlikely.
If we go down further and take the counties and assume that the size of a farm is a matter that is required, we will find that there are not many cases of a farmer having a thousand acres. There are few even of five hundred, but if it would mean that the person might be identified it would scarcely be fair to say that the whole statistics should be upset owing to an objection from a person of that sort. I have been looking at exports and except perhaps in the case of one or two companies the possibility of identification is small. There are other cases where a tariff has been imposed and people know that there is only one particular firm at the work. In that case it is obvious that the public ought to know how the thing is going. The intention is not to expose individual companies' business but rather to give a true picture. I suppose motor cars would fall under the same head. Fords are the only people who export.