Thursday, March 14, 1968 the harvesting of Irish Moss. The establishment of two driers, three possibly, there are one or two in the western part of the province, and one in North Lake in the Eastern part of the Province, is a great asset to the harvesters of Irish Moss. It takes a lot of the labour out of it and where they can gather moss in the morning and market a day or so after in the wet condition it certainly is a great asset to those who wish to harvest the moss. It takes a lot of the labour out of it and they can gather a lot more at a time. There was a new Fishermen's Loan Board passed here last year, and evidently, according to this document, there are no Regulations set forth yet. Now the government passed that, the Loan Board , last year and it is certainly time that they implemented the Regulations and got the proclaimed and Regulations proclaimed so it will become active at the present time. They say here that they are going to inaugurate a program to improve pro¬ duction of the poultry industry. Well, I would like to know how they are going to do that, Mr. Minister of Agriculture. Hon . Daniel J. MacDonald : I'll tell you. Leo F. Rossiter : O.K ., you haven't told us yet and the poultry industry has never been at such a low ebb and I don't know what you could do to implement it. To help it in anyway would certainly be beneficial to the industry. Any possible market that you could suggest or anything that would stimulate the poultry industry. There is one thing that this government hasn't done, Mr. Speaker , and it is a very, very important one and that is in regard to marketing. Marketing, they talk about reclaiming land, 400,000 acres, Mr. Speaker , I sub¬ mit that we have plenty of land here in this Province, all you have to do is cultivate it and market what is produced here in the Province at the present time. Marketing and production go hand in hand, and this is where government can and should enter the field of marketing. It is costly, time consuming, and this is an avenue and a field in which the government can act and should act very efficiently and swiftly. We should be continually making business contacts in Europe , United States, , , and all parts of the world, as a matter of fact. They should be making these contracts where there is a very large concentration of people for the sale of our farm and fishery products, and for the purpose of getting the latest and most up-to-date know-how to produce more fishermen. You should invite business men from all over these areas to visit the Province to find out at first hand the excellent products that we do have on hand and that we are quite capable of pro¬ ducing. Long-term contracts that can be obtained, but I was astounded this year when it was reported that the so-called Greek deal has been bid at ten dollars a ton less than last year. Ten dollars a ton, this is fifty cents a hundred weight. This is a lot of money, Mr. Speaker , and I would like to suggest to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture that he use his powers, all the powers he posses to see that this doesn't happen again. This, Mr. Speaker, is not fair to the producers of this Province for dealers to sit around hotel rooms and decide what the farmer is going to get for his produce. They are bidding against each other and cutting the price fifty cents a bag. This, in my opinion, is a deplorable and a ridiculous situation that we have, that has crept into the marketing of one of our best cash crops here in the Province. Hon . Daniel J. MacDonald : Mr. Speaker , I wonder if the speaker would permit a question? Leo F. Rossiter : Yes. Hon . Daniel J. MacDonald : Would you be in favour of a central selling agency? Leo F. Rossiter : Sure; anything is better than the system that we now have. There doesn't seem to be any law or order to it. Any group that can sit around and decide to sell a block of potatoes to Venezuela or Greece and start bidding against each other at the cost of fifty cents a bag to the producer I am against it. Harold P. Smith : You would be in favour, then, of one desk selling. —293—