like it well. I had no money when I came. I left the Fremantle council and all I had was sufficient to pay the first half years rent. To-day I have a nice holding. My wages in Fremantle were £3 a week, and I could save no money out of that. I worked for the council for 19 years without a stain on my character. I am working for my boys, and if I can leave anything behind me for them I will do so. When I came here first it was 70 miles from Goomalling, and if we wanted a cake of tobacco or a letter posted we had to go there for them. It took a week to go there and back. Nevertheless I am quite satisfied to be on the land. In the first year I put in 180 acres. That was a failure in the dry 1911. In 1912 I got a fair crop. In 1913 I put 500 acres in. The end of that was that it was as bare as a floor.

6251. By Mr CLARKSON: I do not know how you did it? -Of course I had my boys, and two of them are at the war. I selected 1,200 acres for one boy, but you must remember that I went out to work at times. I took a contract for clearing 20 miles of road, and the boys helped me and it all went into the one pocket. It was by going out and working extra that I have been able to manage, but I am quite satisfied that from this time out I can live on the land once I am off the Industries Assistance Board.

6252. But every man could not have the same opportunity of getting work? - They all had the same chance as I had.

6252a. Still, you can now profitably occupy the whole of your time upon the land? -That is so.

6253. There must be sufficient cleared land, otherwise a man could not make a living, and there is not enough work for all men who go out on the land on the roads? - The Government should give settlers more cleared land to start with, so as to profitably occupy every day of the year on the holding. As it so happened mine was the only tender that was put in for the work that I referred to.

6254. By the CHAIRMAN: Others preferred to stay on their land and get deeper into debt.

(The Witness Retired.)

JAMES WILSON ROGERS, storekeeper, Ballidu, sworn and examined:

6255. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been living here about 3½ years.

6255a. What is your opinion of the class of settler here? - Fairly good generally. I should say that 90 per cent of them were all right. The 10 per cent remainder go on the land before they have any cash to carry with. In some cases failure is due to inexperience and in others to incapacity.

6256. Are the settlers of a thrifty type? -Yes. I think, too, that they are on the average careful in their purchases of machinery, although there are not many of them that have sheds erected for their accommodation, for that of course costs money.

6257. What is your experience of the Industries Assistance Board? - I cannot get any cash out of them. They owe me between £200 and £300. They promised to pay the 1914 accounts, yet there was a surplus. In my own case there has not been a surplus, therefore we have to wait.

6258. Did you supply goods in 1914 of your own free will or trusting to the good sense and the fair judgement of the State to recoup you for the advance made after July? - In some cases we supplied goods on the strength of the Agricultural Bank paying, but they have not done so always. One man owed me £25, of which I would never get 6d. I get written orders on the bank passed through in the usual way, but he has since left the land and I shall not get anything. They were to pay up as soon as the money was available, but as far as I can gather that will not be done.

6259. Do you supply stores before you get the Bank's approval of that order? - I do, a portion of them. When a man takes on a contract and a farmer gives him an order on the Agricultural Bank, I think I am justified in supplying the goods.

6260. By Mr. CLARKSON: You take it as a clear business risk? -Yes, I sent in the names of 15 customers with the amounts due and payable and we had to wait for 12 months for our money. It would have been better not to have done the business. The trouble is waiting all your life. One does not mind waiting a while.

6261. When a farmer let a contract and gave an order on the Agricultural Bank your consider it a fair business risk to advance upon it even before the bank passed it as approved? - That is when you know there is a bank advance on the land.

6262. The risk is that the man might have had the amount advanced? - They would not give an order on work already drawn upon.

6262a. Your principal grievance is in respect of stores supplied from July to December, 1914, when there was nobody to look after the farmers at all? - Yes.

6262b. By Mr. VENN: Do these same people still deal with you? - Not in all cases; if they did you would not mind so much waiting. But they send to Perth and when they go broke they come back to us.

6263. By the Chairman: Have there been absolute failures among the farmers here? - In that case, there was one and he left his wheat standing on the ground and went to the Board for seed wheat for the coming season and would not take off the old wheat. There seems to be something radically wrong. It was a light crop and would have paid to take off and he had the necessary machinery. He took a team and went working elsewhere, leaving his crop to go to waste. He gave me an order on the bank.

6264. Can you suggest how such existing grievances in this district can be remedied? - I think they should make arrangements for the payment of the old accounts. Traders at Goomalling gave us particulars relating to a similar state of affairs there.

6265. By Mr. CLARKSON: Have you had much dealing with the I.A.B.? -They are nearly all of them in the I.A.B.

6266. By Mr PAYNTER: Do you know instances of successful farmers who are not on the Board? -Yes, but they have only just got off the Board. There are some who have not been and yet are successful, but of course they had capital.

6267. By Mr. CLARKSON: If the bulk of the I.A.B. men had their liabilities funded and the repayment spread over a period of years, could they stand on their own feet? -In some cases they could not. They would want assistance for another year.