Part 5

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no capital to purchase them. I think sheep are out of the question here for the time being. There is no poison on my land but there is little doubt the dingoes will come in time. Most of my feeding country is scrubby, and the land must be prepared for the reception of sheep. Cattle seem to do well enough as it is, but I cannot say whether it is a dairying district or not. Though no doubt a man with a family and a small herd of milkers would do well enough. Personally, at this distance from a local market, I would not attempt dairying. Although as I said cattle do well enough here and so do pigs. My place would carry 100 to 150 head of cattle, but to get them I must have money. As a fall-back in the case of a bad season my wheaten straw would see me through. At the present time, however, I have not sufficient land fenced in for cattle.

6428. By the CHAIRMAN: Have you any other suggestions to offer?—A road board has just been formed in Perenjori, and I do not think a more inopportune moment could have been found for starting it. \6429. That is rather a matter of local Government?—Yes, but the Commission might recommend a reduction of rates at this juncture.

6430. By Mr CLARKSON: Was it not entirely a local movement?—Probably it was. We used to be in the Mingenew Road Board and that is 60 miles away.

6431. By the CHAIRMAN: I am afraid we can only deal with State matters. Just now I am suffering a plague of mice. Can you suggest a remedy? Then again. there is the question of 10 per cent. deferred payments on machinery. Could you assist us in that direction?

6431A. By the CHAIRMAN: If the Government were to take over your liabilities and arrange for a reduction of interest, funded the whole and spread the repayment over a period of years, do you think that would be satisfactory?—Quite.

6432. What is your annual rainfall?—In the growing season it is rather hard to express an opinion but I think it would be between nine and 10 inches, and that is ample if it was dependable. Actually we get too much summer rain here. The greatest hardship of all under which we suffer with all our hard work is not being able to make farming pay, owing to hard conditions prevailing and to the bad seasons. My efforts would have resulted very satisfactorily had it not been for those drawbacks. I put my own money into it and money advanced by the bank and by the Industries Assistance Board. Last year we had 23 inches of rain, but it is the climate that is the greatest drawback to settlement and will remain so until we have learned how to beat it. The land is undeniably good, but it must be remembered that we are pioneering, many of us at our own expense on behalf of the State as a whole. And so far as the assistance given by the State is concerned, it can only be described as Utopian. Speaking for myself, I must admit the have assisted me most loyally, still I should like an assurance that provided I keep going and the results are increasing favourably that the State will continue to back me up. I might add that I have had no assistance whatever by way if advice from any of the expert officials employed for the purpose by the Department of Agriculture.

(The witness retired.)

DONALD MELVILLE LESLIE, jun., representing D. M. Leslie, Farmer, Latham, sworn and examined:

6433. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been here for three and a half years. We hold 8,000 acres. Fifteen hundred acres are forest, and the balance sandplain. We paid for it 15s. an acre down to 5s. The 15s. rate was reduced to 12s. 6d. We have two and a half miles carting to the railway. Seven hundred acres are cleared, 600 acres are fenced. We have three wells, one freshwater; the others are good stock water and have good supplies. We have a good weatherboard house and sufficient stabling and machinery. We have a full farming plant with the exception of a binder. We have 12 working horses, three cows, a bull, some calves, pigs, and fowls. Our capital was about £3,000. We do not borrow from the Agricultural Bank.

6434. To Mr CLARKSON: We have 464 acres under crop. It was all ploughed, but with the exception of 35 acres none was fallow. We never had fallow. We have only had two crops, but the first was a failure, and last year we only got three bags. The average this year should be about 12 bushels, and it takes 10 bushels to pay the actual cost of putting in and taking off. The late wheats are best here, Federation. We sow 45 to 60lbs. according to the quality of land. About 320 acres of the crop is forest country. We use 60lbs. of super on the sandplain and 50 on the forest. We work an eight-furrow disc plough and it does eight acres a day. The cultivator is a 17 and does 17 acres. With a 15 drill we do 20 acres. We use a State 6ft. harvester and do eight acres a day with it. With larger machinery, however, our costs should show a proportionate diminution. Bulk handling would also assist in the reduction of costs, but I have not considered how the grain could be best conveyed to the railway under this system.

6435. To Mr PAYNTER: One of the crops last year had blight and rust. We pickle but do not grade our wheat, nor have we tried fodder crops or artificial grasses. Vegetables, however, grow well, but fruit trees are destroyed by white ants. We have pigs for our own use only and hand feed them. We pay 35s. a week and keep wages, and to one man 60s. and keep, and we work from sunrise to sunset. No man in this district should have less than 1,500 acres of good land, and he should be able to account for 300 to 400 acres annually himself. No doubt co-operation amongst the settlers for the purchase of supplies and the marketing of produce would be a good plan, but it is a matter I have not considered to any extent. I do not think that the price of land here is at all reasonable. For our land we paid 5s. for sandplain. Actually we should be paid 5s. for keeping it. There are only two inches of sand before you come to solid rock, and there is also poison. At the present time, therefore, there is no hope for sheep. You plough the poison out and fire it and next year there will be still more poison.

6436. By Mr VENN: Do you infer that the plan of the location was misleading?—Yes, actually it is not worth 6d. an acre, and the more of it a man holds the poorer he will become. The Government said they would reprice it but they have never been near us for that purpose. They repriced a bit of jam land