a telegram about it. In every instance railway facilities should precede settlement. We here were promised a line by the land board to be constructed in 12 months. Actually we had to wait three years for it. (The witness retired.)

FRANCIS ARTHUR GRANVILLE, Farmer, Morawa, Sworn and examined:

6592. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been settled here for six years. Previously I was tailoring in Perth. I took up 928 acres. It is all forest, with the exception of 100 acres. I did not inspect it before taking it up, but the classification corresponded to the land. They classified the forest as first class land irrespective of its value. I think the salmon gum land is the best. It has deeper soil. The mixed York gum and scrub land is shallow, with cement at a depth of six inches to two feet. I have not found the bottom of the salmon gum land. The old price was 25s. I have not heard from the department with regard to any reduction, although I have put in an application. I have four and a-half miles carting to the railway. There are 230 acres cleared and ring fenced, and I have a paddock of 90 acres with a three-wire fence. I have a well of stock water and I have the use of a dam on the adjoining property, which belongs to my brother. I am married and have four children. One of them was recently married. Two of them are of school going age and attend school. The third child has got beyond the school standard here. My daughter's ambition is to become a teacher, but she can get no more education here, and what she has is not sufficient to enable her to take up a position in a school. She is studying to try and pass the examination. The Education Department should make better provision for country children getting their education in Perth. Farmers cannot afford to send children away. We have a two-roomed hessian building to live in. Financial reasons prevented me doing anything better, that and the failure of my crops. I lacked experience when I took up farming, and I did not know what was before me. I have a stable for my horses, machinery sheds all of thatch. I have a set of farming implements and four working horses, a cow and calf and poultry. I had £40 capital when I came on the land, and I have borrowed form the Agricultural Bank roughly £400. I owe about £600 to the Industries Assistance Board.

6593. To Mr CLARKSON: I have 175 acres in crop and about 40 acres on summer fallow. I have a better crop than the fallow land; part of that was sandplain. I had no previous experience of fallow, but I noticed it, and my own opinion of it is that it varies according to the land a man holds. I am in favour of fallowing deep. My brother had done as much fallow as anybody about here, with very good results in deep land, but where the cement is near the surface it is a different matter. My brother has not had more than one cultivation before sowing. A comparative result of fallow was that last season on the fallow land we had an average of about none bags; the remaining portion of his land went down to two or three bags. A great deal of it was due to late sowing. His fallow land had the advantage right through. The highest yield I had was 15 bushels on two occasions, namely, last year and the year but one before. I estimate my crop this year at 12 to 13 bushels. I have not kept any accounts, but I should reckon that it would take three to four bags to pay the cost of putting in and taking off a crop. I use both plough and cultivator. I have a Unicorn mouldboard plough, three-furrow, which does two and a half acres a day. With a 13-disc drill I do on an average eight to 10 acres a day. With a Unicorn six-foot harvester I do six acres, but that is largely owing to my want of strength, for my four horses are not enough.

6594. Could you decrease your costs if you had strength and larger implements?—Yes. I think I put down the reason of my failure to the want of area under crop. I am only able to crop 175 acres, and it takes at least 200 acres to pay your expenses. To make up for the bad year and past losses, a man must have that before he can do any good. I have no experience of bulk handling, and my present opinion is that it requires carefully going into with the people who have had experience elsewhere. I am opposed to protective tariff, as I am a freetrader, and all farming implements should undoubtedly come in free of duty.

6595. To Mr PAYNTER: I have no disease in my crops and I pickle my wheat, but I have not graded it. I realise it is necessary for a farmer to have a grader, but as a grader is only used for a short period in the year something collective might be done amongst the farmers. I have tried no fodder plants, but I made small attempts with vegetables. Water is the great drawback. I have a few pigs and I hand-feed them, but no poultry. At harvest time the wages are 30s. a week and keep. For the present harvest arrangements I have had to pay what the Board allows, namely £2 14s. a week and the man to keep himself. I have one of the best possible men with me. His working hours are anything from five till nine daily. If a man is going in for mixed farming he must have more than 1,000 acres, but if he is going in for wheat only and sufficient stock for his own use, say for a meat supply, he could do on 1,000 acres. I do not believe in one man farms at all, but with a little necessary help at harvest time and seeding, and with the necessary power and machinery, I should say a man should account for 250 acres to 300 acres every year. There would undoubtedly be great advantage in some system of co-operation among farmers for the purchase of supplies and the marketing of produce. although I am a believer in the principle of co-operation, up to now I find that farmers are one of the worst classes of people to pull together. I think there is room for improvement in the land laws, and when a man takes up his land at the outset his rents should be deferred for five years at least. That is, he should be given 25 years to pay for it, and I think those of us who have had to pay those rents should have the amounts credited to future payments. I think that a man going in for mixed farming should have a minimum of 1,500 acres.

6596. Does your employed average more than nine hours a day all the year round?—No. I myself work all hours, and I hold the opinion that any man who works for a farmer will, at the end of the year, have a better banking account than the farmer himself. When I worked at my trade in Perth, which I did for 12 years, I earned from £3 to £4 a week,