cheques. Whether any good was accruing or not from the system is a matter of opinion, but I certainly think that all they earn over the £5 17s. should be in the direction of solid improvements.

6476. Supposing they did nothing but merely receive the £5 17s.?—In the past they were drawing up to £14 a month, and doing nothing but pottering about. When I went round first I told them to do work which could be assessed. If a man spent his time running backwards and forwards about a windmill that was consigned to him, you could not very well assess it. Then he has to go to the siding once a month perhaps for stores. That time cannot be assessed.

6477. Is it not better to have them under control than to leave them with a free hand?—I think I have sized them all up correctly. One has to be careful how one deals with them, for on the least excuse they would go off the land. Already there are properties in the hands of the Bank and the Board but I am confident of the future of the district provided that the seasons can be reckoned upon. The soil is good enough for anything, but rainfall records have only been available within the last seven years. I have been nearly all my life in this country, and the seasons during the lase seven years have been most erratic. Previous to that time droughts were practically unknown with the exception of the North-West where for three years I did not see a drop of rain.

6478. Does anybody in Western Australia know the rainfall for 20 years past from here to Mullewa?—I don't think so.

6479. Then you think that farming here is as it were a step in the dark, and that the whole enterprise is an experiment so far as this locality is concerned?—That is so.