land before I came on to it. I went on the loan approved by the Agricultural Bank, and the plan and classification. I found the classification to be very close indeed. I have cleared 400 acres and fenced my homestead of 160 acres, altogether about two miles, and there is another two miles partly fenced. I have an 800 cubic yard dam, nine feet deep, but not covered. It has been permanent, with the exception of the drought year, 1914, and it is full now. I am a married man with one boy, who rides seven miles every day to school. My home consists of two rooms of bush timber, and an iron roof. I have enough stabling for my horses, constructed of brush, with a straw roof, and I have enough implements to work the farm. I have four working draught horses, and one cow. I had a little capital when I went on the land, about £150, after I left the goldfields. I got, I think £500 from the Agricultural Bank, including a stock loan and a loan for clearing. The I.A.B. also assisted me and, according to their statement, I still owe them a little more than £100. Since then there has been 6d. paid but I owe merchants money and the Board paid a lot of them out of the proceeds of the last crop. My indebtedness to the merchants is about £150, so that I will roughly owe a sum of about £800. There are those who think that the repayment should be deferred for a number of years.

6308. To Mr. CLARKSON: I have 340 acres under crop, but no fallow, though I believe in it, but in my position I am unable to fallow. I think this district suitable for early wheats, and I have had success with lots of late wheat. I sow 45lbs. of Lotts to the acre, and of the early wheats I sow a bushel, and of super 30lbs. to 80lbs. according to the class of country. Seventeen bushels was the highest yield I have had, and that was last year. That was above the average yield for the district. Some of the crops last year were destroyed, so it is hard to estimate the average all round. I use a four-furrow plough and do about four acres a day. I have a 15-disc drill and average with it 14 acres. I plough in new ground about three inches and use a Deering harvester, making seven acres a day.

6309. Do you think the employment of larger machinery would tend to the reduction of parts?—Yes, especially on my holding, because my land is so level and suitable for large machinery. Bulk handling also should reduce costs and this could be carried out with a box wagon. I have not seen it used elsewhere, but so far as the implements are concerned, it would be an advantage to the farmer if they came in free of duty.

6310. To Mr. PAYNTER: My crops have not suffered from disease to any great extent, but last year there was a slight rust and also blight, but I do not think they affected the yield. I pickle but do not grade my wheat, nor have I grown artificial grasses, but vegetables do well, while fruit trees have been destroyed by the white ants. I do not keep pigs, but the raising of eggs for the market is a payable undertaking. I have paid up to 35s. a week for labour with keep, and I am paying a man now £2 a week and his keep. On the whole I find the labour satisfactory. We work from daylight to dark and often after that. Every farmer should hold at least 1,000 acres here. Co-operation amongst farmers is most advisable. So far as the land rents are concerned and the conditions of settlement since the repricing of rents took place, I think the position has become satisfactory. Later on I intend to go in for sheep, and I think it would be desirable for the Government to make advances to suitable persons for the purchase of breeding ewes. Dairying would only be profitable for a few months in the year. Certainly not for the whole year.

6311. To the CHAIRMAN: When a man is starting to farm I think that geldings are better for him. He wants mostly geldings and only a few mares to increase his stock gradually by breeding. I am satisfied that I can make a success of farming here, but what I most particularly wish is to be in a position to clear more land. When a man has 300 acres cleared it takes him all his time to keep that going, and that is not enough cleared land to make farming profitable.

6312. To Mr. CLARKSON: I would prefer if I had the opportunity that all my liabilities should be funded and the repayment spread over a period of years. That is preferable to the present method. As far as educational facilities go, the children out here have no chance of being examined by a medical officer to see if they are in good health as is the case in the larger centres. I think the railway should give us some facility to enable our wives to visit the seaside in summer. My wife has been continually on the farm for the past six years, and in that time has only been once to Perth and then in spring cart. I have the following record of the rainfall here for a period of four years:— Rainfall seven miles East of Pithara:— 1912, only started in October. Nov. to Apl. - May to Oct. 1913 (say) - 3.64 - 8.27 1914 - 1.12 - 4.60 1915 - 5.74 - 15.72 1916 (to date) - 5.20 - 11.08 Total - 15.70 - 39.67 Average - 3.92 - 9.91

(The witness retired.)

JOSEPH HODGSON, Farmer, Holmelea, Pithara, sworn and examined:

6313: To the CHAIRMAN: I have been here for three years and had three years previously in Kellerberrin farming, all the time for other people. I hold 1,528 acres, half of it is forest and the rest is good scrub land. I paid 13s. 6d. for the forest and 10s. for the other land, but the 13s. 6d. has been reduced to 11s., while the price of the scrub land still remains at 10s. It is 14½ miles cartage to the nearest siding. I have 450 acres cleared and 60 acres partly cleared. I have only 92 chains of boundary fence and 30 chains of internal fencing. Two hundred and thirty acres are enclosed. I have no water supply of my own but the Government dam is only half a mile away. I am a married man with one child—an infant. My home is a bush camp with a bush stable and a bush shed for machinery. I have six working horses and no other live stock. When I started I had £200 capital. The Agricultural Bank lent me for stock and clearing £520. The Industries Assistance Board have not sent in a state-