should have built a decent house only that the freights were against me. Even with a bat house you want stone, timber, and iron. I have brelia poison on my land, and so at present it is impossible to get a run of stock.

(The witness retired.)

VERNON WILSON, Latham, Inspector of the Agricultural Bank and of the Lands Department, examined:

6461. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been in the district three months. Previous to that I was at Dalwallinu, and before that in the Bridgetown district. I have been for 15 months with the Industries Assistance Board on this railway. My district extends to six miles the other side of Perenjori, and from Three Springs to Coorow, and thence across to Latham. My district covers both lines and to the other side of the rabbit fence, which is 14 miles away, and over to the coast on the other side if necessary.

6462. By the CHAIRMAN: In which portion of your district are the financially sound settlers?—One the Midland line, or rather they should be near Winchester Siding; on the Midland line there is a man who has paid in freight, land and interest £7,000. His property is worth £1,500. The land is Midland Company land. The settlers on the Midland line have been there longer and should be stronger. I have several instructions on hand from the Agricultural Bank in regard to settlers here, but am standing off as much as possible. During this last trip I have been occupied travelling fully 11 hours a day, and it takes me 30 days to get round my district.

6462A. How many Industries Assistance Board men are there in the district?—About 60.

6463. Are they going to win through?—Many of them ought to be emptied out straightaway. Take one of them out near the fence. He had £975 on his produce, and yet he is between two minds whether or not to walk out at any time. \ 6463A. By Mr. CLARKSON: What is wrong, the land, the methods or the country?—For the last seven years land settlement has gone ahead with the exception of the last two years. Many of them who have gone in for farming had no idea of the business, and they are learning by bitter experience, and have had, moreover, to face a severe drought.

6464. Do you think the district is good enough for farming?—Absolutely.

6465. By the CHAIRMAN: Do you think any of them will make a success of it?—Yes.

6466. By Mr. PAYNTER: Where up-to-date methods are followed, are they not doing well?—Up to now fallowing has not been insisted on, but the Industries Assistance Board is insisting on it this year, and say that up to 450 acres they will be allowed two-thirds of their crop. Over that one half to be fallow and one half crop.

6467. By Mr. CLARKSON: Does my observation lead you to believe that fallow is better than other methods?—Six weeks ago during the dry spell the fallow was worse than the other. With the winter rains the surface seems to cake on ordinary land, but on fallow the soil is looser, and in a dry spell the heat seems to filtrate further down. With the other, when you take off the surface you find it moist underneath.

6468. Do you think the action of the Industries Assistance Board enforcing men to fallow is the right method in this part of the State?—Not in the early stages.

6469. Have you expressed that opinion to your Board?—No. It seems to me me that all the nourishment the plant requires is on the surface here. Outside the crop where the seed is thrown down the growth is 1ft. higher.

6469A. That condition pertains to almost any district for the first couple of crops. After a crop or two, fallow will come right. Do you think any proportion of your Industries Assistance Board men would win through if their liabilities were funded, and 10 years were given for repayment. Would that scheme enable them to become firmly established?—It is hard to say because the whole matter depends so absolutely on the seasons.

6470. But with good seasons?—They would be able to pull through in this district better than in any other. Farming methods are so simple for the first few years.

6471. By Mr. VENN: There is very little forest land, is there not, and the whole area is very patchy?—Well, the same remark applies all over Western Australia, but there are no very big tracts of forest land. At Dalwallinu there is a fine piece of country starting three or four miles to the south of Pithara, and it runs through to the north of Nugadong, and extends 10 miles west and approximately 20 miles the other way. There is a little belt of sandplain here and there.

6472. By Mr. CLARKSON: What proportion of your settlers have no poison?—I think all of them have a little poison.

6473. Is there a great deal of poison spread through the unselected Crown lands?—Yes, I think you will find it almost everywhere. It is thick in some places, especially the kite leaf. In some places there are acres of it it five feet or six feet high. Further south of the poison areas they have taken on mixed farming. There is 10 times the amount of poison there that there is here.

6474. By the CHAIRMAN: Is there anything more that any Government could do to establish the settlers satisfactorily?—No. Possibly I ought not to take exception to their methods, but this new system of Mr. Mitchell's is not altogether a success. I think the money paid to them should be devoted to solid improvements in the direction of clearing and fallowing. In the past the men have been getting their cheques and doing whatever work they liked. For the £5 17s. which they received they can please themselves what they do for it. When they get the second instalment of £5 17s. or any part of it, they should be able to show something done of a solid nature. This new system is a difficult proposition. For instance, there was one man at Three Springs who broke a window, and when I got to his place I asked him the usual question, "What have you been doing," and he said, "I have been running backwards and forwards to Three Springs to see if the glass for the window has come, and also carting water." Yet the fact is that he could go there and back in a couple of hours and transact all his business in that time.

6475. Do you have to decide whether a man is malingering or not?—Yes, or I leave it to the office to decide. In the past, settlers have been getting these