§ Dr. Petersasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that the Sugar Commission have had before them the matter of Dr. Leake's spacing drill for over three years; that arrangements were made for the manufacture of six spacing drills last year, but that these were so inefficiently built that they were useless for demonstration; that it is now proposed to recondition three only of these spacing 1515W drills for the 1942 season; and, having regard to its value in wartime in materially increasing the quantity of home-grown sugar with a great reduction and saving of seed, what action does he propose to take to see that this spacing drill is placed at the disposal of the farming community with as little further delay as possible?
Mr. HudsonI understand that Dr. Leake brought his drill to the notice of the Sugar Commission in June, 1938, with a view to securing assistance in its commercial production. Dr. Leake was unwilling to submit his drill to trials or demonstrations under the aegis of their Research and Education Committee, and they were unable to assist him. Shortly after the outbreak of war the claims made by Dr. Leake in regard to his drill, particularly for sugar beet, were brought to my notice, and the advice of the Sugar Commission was again sought. As a result of preliminary investigations which the Research and Education Committee thereupon arranged, the Committee decided to manufacture six drills to obtain adequate information on the performance of the drill under different conditions. No working drawings were available for the manufacture of the drills, which incidentally involved accurate machining of a type for which facilities are peculiarly difficult to get under war conditions, and Dr. Leake did not accept the models produced as being sufficiently accurate copies of his drill for the purpose of further examination of its performance. In these circumstances the Committee, after consultation with Dr. Leake, decided that he should be invited to carry out the reconditioning of some or all of the drills to his satisfaction for that purpose. I am, therefore, at present unable to say what action, if any, can be taken in regard to the use of the drill generally.