ment of what I owe them but the last that came to hand up to the end of March showed that I owed £150. That was one year's assistance after 1914 drought. To put in the crop this year I have not borrowed except for stores and super. I had my own horse feed and seed. I do not owe anything to the merchants. The Board has included everything in the £150 for 1915, to which must be added stores and super. for this season.

6314. To Mr. Clarkson: I have 190 acres in crop. Forty-six acres fallow, and I strongly believe in fallow, as one should get five bushels more easily from fallow land. I prefer Gluyas and Fairbank seed and Federation for late sowing. I sow 45 lbs. to 60 lbs. according to the class of land, and 40 lbs. to 90 lbs. of super. I have only had one crop averaging 14 bushels. My first resulted in nil. To pay annual costs without any wages for myself would take four bags. I use a four-furrow disc plough and do my own work. With six horses I do five acres a day. I use a 13-disc drill and do 13 acres a day, and I also have a 5ft. Sunshine harvester. With one team I do eight acres. I did 11 yesterday with a double team working with a neighbour. If I had larger machinery I could decrease my costs. Bulk handling would reduce them a great deal. One would have to have a tank for the purpose and would only use a small quantity of bags and keep a team on all the time one was harvesting. I think that farmer's machinery should come in duty free, and if all my liabilities were funded and repayment spread over five years, I could get along without further assistance and would prefer it.

6315. To Mr. Paynter: I have no disease in my crops and I pickle but do not grade my wheat. I have not yet started vegetable growing or fruit trees. A man should hold in this district 1,500 acres to 2,000 and should crop 300 and fallow 300 acres a year with a little assistance at seed time and harvest. Co-operation among farmers would be an advantage. I am working in that direction myself at night time on behalf of the Farmers Co-operative Company. The present land laws, rentals and conditions are not easy for the first five years. The settler should be exempted for that period and free of such expense until he gets on his legs. It is the first two or three years that he is struggling while nothing is coming in.

6316. To Mr. Venn: I intend to go in for sheep when I am in position to do it properly and have sufficient water and fencing. There are some dingoes about and they have taken some of my fowls, so it is easy to know what they would do with sheep. The district is good grassed country when cultivated otherwise it will not carry much stock.

6317. To the Chairman: I think the Agricultural Department should assist us to clear sufficient land as soon as possible after taking it up, say 600 acres including 300 acres of fallow. On my place I have 450 acres cleared, part of it is scrub land. When a man has cleared 300 acres and crops that, and when seeding is done the harvest is on him and he has no time to get any more land cleared, but if the Department could assure him 600 acres it would be more profitable for them and for him as well. With such assistance he could make a success of it. Fallow is what is wanted, and the drought proved that fact beyond all question. In the dry year I had 130 acres of crop and four inches of rain feel, otherwise on my cultivated land I would have stripped four or five bags.

(The Witness Retired.)

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JULIAN CLARE O'DEA, Kilfenora Farm, Pithara, sworn and examined:

6318. To the Chairman: I have been in the district more than five years and hold 2,728 acres partly held by Mrs. L. A. Townsend. One block is in her name. She is my wife's mother. I have to cart seven miles to the railway. Two hundred and seventy acres of forest country have been cleared and 75 acres are down ready for burning. Sixty-five acres have been scrub-rolled ready for raking up. I have a tank of permanent water 1,150 cubic yards in extent, eight feet deep, which costs 1s 3d. per yard, and at present I have sufficient horses and plant to work the land. I am married but my children cannot attend school, one being only five and the other three years of age, and are therefore too young. My house is of hessian and iron and bush timber. My stables and machinery sheds are of bush timber. I had no capital when I took up the land and have been able to develop it through the agency of the Agricultural Department, who advanced £600 odd. I have had also £500 from the Industries Assistance Board and this year's super and stores.

6319. To Mr. Clarkson: I have 250 acres under crop, but no fallow. The best yield I have had was 11 bushels. I shoulder consider it good business if we had a regular yield of 15 bushels, and am quite satisfied that bulk handling would reduce our costs. I do not think that farmers' implements should pay any duty. No man should hold less than 1,000 acres, but 300 acres would be the maximum he could work single handed. The price of land I consider to be reasonable, but the terms could be readjusted with advantage in the early part of the settle's career. When we came here we had the assurance of the Government that we should get a railway immediately. We did not get it, however, until two years after that. We also had the assurance that there were no droughts and the regulations were farmed accordingly. Still the droughts have come, while the regulations have not been altered. That is my main grievance against the present system of settlement. If liabilities were funded and repayment deferred for a reasonable time it would be an advantage to me, and I should prefer to remain under the Agricultural Department. The Government in the past made the settler keep up to his obligations and although we have not paid our rents, yet the Government have ample security and are getting interest on all overdue money, so they could well recompense the settlers here by making them an allowance to clear, say, 600 acres and exempt them from payment of rent for five years. By that time this district would be as safe as Morawa or Goomalling. For a five year's period we compare more than favourably with Morawa.

(The Witness Retired.)

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