taken the younger men away and since things have been bad in the shipping line, the men not absolutely anchored to the place have gone away to look for work.

6761. Has the matter of greater conveniences been take up vigorously?—The Chamber of Mines and the Trader's Association have had a good deal to say about it. The lighting of the jetty was a great drawback until the Chamber of Commerce got the first two berths lighted and now the Government is engaged in the lighting of the whole of the jetty. We applied as a deputation of citizens and through the Chamber of Commerce for an extra set of rails for the jetty, but the Commissioner in his wisdom refused us and said that the jetty was too narrow for them. Possibly the new harbour scheme of widening the jetty may prove more satisfactory. They are building a viaduct two-thirds of the way and are going to erect a boomerang shaped jetty. They are also going to dredge and to widen the jetty. We wanted them to widen the jetty first, as the viaduct is no use to us, but it was explained that you could not bridge without protection, so in the course of time the jetty will doubtless be widened.

(The witness retired.)

GEO. HINKLEY, Eradu, Farmer, sworn and examined:

6762. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been farming in this district for 11 years. My first holding was 160 acres, but I now hold 1,437 acres.

6763. Was it first class land?—It was a first class price, 11s. 6d. for 237½ acres, 12s. 6d. for 705 acres, and 7s. 6d. for a grazing lease of 493 acres.

6764. Has the price since been reduced?—Not yet.

6765. Have you made any application for its reduction?—Several times and with no result. None of it is first class land. It is York gum, jam, and mallee country.

6766. Is not the jam first class land?—Not any quantity of it. I do not call jam and York gum first class if it is stony.

6767. What do you define as first class land?—My 500-acre block, with patches of five or six acres, and that is no good to agriculturists. The whole trouble occurred years ago. If I had taken up the land 13 years ago I would have had it for 3s. 9d. an acre. All the land round me was taken up at that price. Our land laws are the rottenest in the world. If you take up a selection you have to go to great pains to get it and when you have been on it it a few weeks you get a letter from the Lands Department demanding £15 or £20 for rent. Where is the settler going to get that amount? Then you borrow from the Agricultural Bank for fencing and clearing and you go from one institution to the other, backwards and forwards. My land is three miles from the railway. Two hundred and twenty acres are cleared and it is all sheep-proof fenced with sheep on it and subdivided into five paddocks. There is a well of fresh water in the centre of it and a three-roomed house. I have no stables and no accommodation shed for machinery. I have a set of implements and seven working draught horses and two young horses, together with 300 sheep.

6768. By Mr. CLARKSON: What was your occupation before you took up land?—I had been on some of the best farms in Western Australia.

6769. Did you know the quality of the land when you took it up and you did so with your eyes open?—Things were booming at the time, but my eyes were not shut, and they have not been shut since I have been there. My wife and I cut our own chaff after we had finished ploughing. I have 113 acres under crop this year, 23 acres of that was fallow, and it does not look a great deal better than the other. I fallowed in August. I believe in fallow as rough as you can, but not in cultivating.

6770. If there was a general system of fallowing in your district, what increase would it entail?—On York gum and jam country it would increase considerably, but on mallee land not very much. It would be hard to fallow a paddock on account of the way that the York gum, jam, and mallee are mixed up.

6771. Would not a general system of fallow increase the acreage under crop?—Decidedly. The sheep is the animal that lays the golden egg. I do not believe in sowing late wheat, not later than the 10th June. I do not like late wheats as they do not stool. I have always fed my early wheats down. I put in 90lbs. of seed last year. I used about 70lbs. up to the first week and 75 or 80lbs. afterwards. On new ground I use about 60lbs. of super. early sowing, with late sowing about 80lbs., that is, any time after the middle of June. The highest average yield that I had in any one year was in 1913, 14 bushels over 100 acres. I had a lovely crop last year, and there were 90 acres of fallow, and it was very thick. I had a cam on the machine taking 20 bushels and it was always choking. There were 538 bags off 120 acres, and 21 tons of hay off eight acres. That was on fallow. I started on 23 acres of fallow on Monday last, and off 11 acres I took 60 bags. The crop altogether might average 12½ or 13 bushels. It would average about 35s. per acre on trucks at Eradu for the putting in and taking off of the crop. That would include depreciation of plant. I use a four-disc McKay mallee plough; it takes five hourses to pull it and I can do four acres a day. I have always used a stripper, but this year I had the loan of a harvester. With a stripper-winnower I took off the crop myself, and my wife turns the machine. Neither she nor I get any wages. If we did not do it ourselves we would pay 5s. an acre for the work.

6772. If you paid 5s., how much are you allowing for yourself and your wife's labour?—Ten shillings or 12s. a day.

6773. Do you think, speaking generally, that farmers are using the largest possible machinery to reduce their costs?—On light soil, yes, but I have light horses. I do not think the principle would apply in rough country. I roll my land with bullocks. I work them for two years and sell them for £5 more than I give for them. Everything here is all right, excepting the wheat. I have not given bulk handling any consideration and I have to opinion particularly about the tariff.

6774. To Mr. PAYNTER: Last year I had rust in my crop and I pickle my wheat. By pickling it for two years and sowing it in dry fallow you will not see rust or smut. I have tried growing Johnston grass, but although horses will not eat it sheep will.