well here, but as I say there has been hardly time for experiments. Still, I have a vegetable garden, and the only time we were without vegetables was in the drought year. The pigs are hand fed, and are a profitable adjunct. We have sent many eggs down to Macfarlane and Co., and poultry to the W.A. Club. We have about 300 fowls. I pay my man and his wife £3 10s. a week and their keep, and another man £2 a week and keep. None of the employees receive less than 35s. to 40s. a week, but all the best men have gone to the war. You will remember that Mr. Hughes promised that we should have men released for the harvest. One attraction to this district would be a public house. If there was a licensed house here the men would stop on the farms. I am president of the Progress Association, and we tried to get a State hotel. There is no accommodation for travellers here at all. Albany Bell came all the way from Perth to oppose it, and the want of it is stopping the progress of the place.

6296. To Mr. PAYNTER: No man in this district should have less than 2,000 acres, and no man can properly farm more than 300 acres. Co-operation among the farmers I look to as being our salvation. The farmers and settlers' idea was a good one, but they made the mistake of creating a body which is something like the Labour caucus. When Mr. James Gardiner was here I asked him on which side he intended to vote, but he abused me. Still, I made it clear to him that I thought he was perfectly right in sticking up for the Midland Railway Co. from his own personal point of view. I think it is marvellous what has been done here. In time the good land will make a poor man rich, but the poor land will make a rich man poor. Our land laws are liberal, and after the close of the war the influx of immigration to this State will be enormous and fresh railway lines will have to be run out in all directions. The tractor will be the great thing of the future, and must take the place of horses, because the cost of feeding horses and growing feed is too great altogether. Eventually, I intend to go in for sheep, although no one is carrying them here, despite the fact that there is plenty of feed. There is a horse paddock that I have of 200 acres, and when it is scrubbed and fired I will have as good grass as you can see anywhere. I am quite convinced that if the Government would supply breeding ewes on extended terms, always to the right men, that it would be materially increase our prosperity. But first of all there must be a plentiful water supply, preferably dams. We have a fine Government dam here, which is splendid drinking water. At one time the poor devils of settlers used to spend all their nights waiting for water at the well. That is why there are no small people here. It was proposal to have the dam placed here and it is a huge success. I have four cows, two of them are milking, but it is only a matter of time and eventually we will have the dairying industry throughout the district carried on by dry-farming methods.

6297. By the CHAIRMAN: Have you found the banks willing to give what assistance is necessary?—They have been more than kind.

6298. What is your opinion of the departmental officials?—I think Mr. McNulty has been the farmer's friend. We have never asked a question to which we did not receive a reply immediately, telling us what to do. but there are always kickers. Those are the people who write for information and forget to append their names and addresses. I have only known one department expert, however, to visit this district, and if Mr. Sutton and Mr. McNulty would only come up occasionally it would do a lot of good. The Forestry Department offered us trees. I estimate the average annual rainfall here to be over 12 inches. Last year I had over 20 inches. I am quite confident as regards this district that it will develop into one of the finest in the whole of Australia. I think that the farmer should have his land given to him for the first five years free of rent, which should be charged up to him afterwards. In Canada and America they laid down the railways first, and then sent to Europe and brought out colonies of settlers, but they did not leave them high and dry.

(The witness retired)

HUGH ALEXANDER FERGUSON McNEILL, Farmer, Dalwallinu, sworn and examined:

6299. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been in this district seven years, and had had experience of farming in Victoria. I held 999 acres, less than 15 acres taken for water catchment. The price of the land was 15s., and has not been reduced. About 700 acres is forest land, and it is 30 chains from the nearest railway siding; 320 acres are cleared, and the whole is fenced. I have an iron house, am married and have a family. One child is going to school after Christmas, as there is a school here. I have a shed for my horses and sufficient accommodation for my machinery, although both buildings are of bush material. My water supply is a dam of 800 cubic yards, eight feet deep, but it does not hold right through the year. It cost me by contract 1s. 6d. a yard. When the dam runs dry I come upon the public dam. I have all the farm implements requisite; four working horses and a light horse, some pigs, three cows, and a bull. I had £300 capital, and I owe £500 to the Agricultural Bank, and I do not know how much to the I.A.B., as I have never had a statement from them. I think I should be about clear of them, but actually I do not know how I stand. I owe in addition about £200 for machinery.

6300. To. Mr. CLARKSON: I have 300 acres in crop; 100 acres was fallowed. I had fallow in previous years. Last year, however I could not see any difference in the crops. Still, I believe in it as a rule. I prefer the early wheats. I put 70lbs. of seed to the acre, and about 50lbs. of super. The highest yield I had was 27 bushels, but not over the whole area. Over the whole area of 230 acres I had 31 bushels. I consider the average for the district is 14 bushels. About 10 bushels per acre should cover the actual cost of putting in and taking off. I use an 8 Sunshine twin disc and can do about five acres a day with it, a 17 drill, with which I can do about 17 acres, and a reaper-thresher is due to arrive here to-morrow. I do not consider that bulk-handling would reduce costs in the position that I am in here, so close to the railway, but it certainly would save buying so many bags.

6301. To Mr. PAYNTER: My crops have never suffered from disease. I pickle, but do not grade my wheat. I have not tried artificial grasses for fodder crops, but in a small way have grown vegetables and fruit trees. I have not been selling my pigs, but at certain times I let them run out in the bush till the month of August, and yard them up again. I have not