6791. What proportion is held by genuine farmers?—Not more than half.

6792. By the CHAIRMAN: What is the nominal value of the shares?—The face value is £1.

6793. How much is called up on your 3,000 issued shares?—£3,000 is called up.

6794. It seems extraordinary for you to be in a position to buy 70,000 bags of wheat?—I and another shareholder went security for what was required. I explained to the bank that I did not think there was any risk for them as we kept making sales against our produce and there was the wheat standing there besides.

6795. What did your plant cost?—I will let you have the last balance sheet. I do not recollect from meory.

6796. The concern would have failed but for the friendly buttressing you gave it?—Yes, we sold £900 worth of debentures. I have redeemed them, but we have no overdraft at the bank. All that we owe is about £2,000 to the Government.

6797. I believe you have had a life-long experience of this district?—I have been here since 1863.

6798. What do you consider to be the prospects of farming in the Mullewa district?—I think it is rather verging on the danger zone, but it would be good country for wheat growing. I owned it for many years as a pastoral country, but as the land gets properly worked in sufficient quantity the settlers should be able to do all right. there is a good class of men getting in that district now, but they will always have to depend on fallow and early maturing wheat. Fallow is, however, the keynote of the whole position.

6799. By Mr. CLARKSON: Do you mean that wheat growing there should be sufficiently profitable occupation to recompense them for the conditions under which they live and the long hours they have to work?—They will have to couple farming with a certain quantity of sheep raising.

6800. You do not consider that wheat can be profitably grown by itself?—No, my idea of that country is that it should be only put in every third year. Crop one year, next year feed it off for stock, the following year fallow it and keep it down with stock, and the succeeding year crop it. You will get more results that way than in three or four years in the ordinary way. I have seen it done.

6801. By Mr. PAYNTER: If that three year's system were adopted in Mullewa it would cease to be in the danger zone?—No, because they would have it in early and the ground would be rich from the fallow and have sufficient strength to withstand drought.

6802. By Mr. CLARKSON: Another direction in which to look for an increase would be in the selection of the wheats most suitable?—Yes, there is a great deal in that. You want early maturing wheat for all that dry country, and wheat requires to be changed every three of four years. If you grow the same continuously for five or six years it will degenerate. I think the wheat should be brought from another climate. If you have light land you should bring the seed off heavy land. I advised my friends to exchange their seed with someone who has a good, vigorous crop. When you grow wheat that comes from a poor, light crop it will not be as vigorous.

6803. By the CHAIRMAN: If you were legislating for the Mullewa district in order to make it successful, what area do you consider a farmer should hold there?—That would depend on the quality of the land and the possibilities of obtaining water, but I do not think that a man could do any good there with less than 2,000 acres.

6804. You would legislate more for stock than for wheat in appraising the value of the land?—There is a great deal of second class land adjoining the good land. It should be combined.

6805. Would it be sound policy to establish it on a wheat growing basis or a stock growing basis?—We are on the grazing basis. Rents are too high all through. When things got bad in South Australia they introduced an Act for surrendering leases and taking up perpetual leases, and the sums that have been paid in the past by way of rent were used to tide the farmers over against the new form of rent.

6806. It was made retrospective and they got the benefit of what they had paid in the past?—Yes; at one time I was all for freehold, but taxation makes no difference between freehold and leasehold.

6807. By Mr. CLARKSON: What became of the original capital of the amount under the South Australian measure. Supposing, for instance, a farmer had paid in £2,000, was that credited to him?—He took it up on a purchase agreement with time payment. He surrendered his lease, and the amount he had paid in rent was credited to him, and thus gave him a big help.

6808, Was the capital still in the land or did it revert to the Government?—No, he still had it and he had the right to sell his property, but it still carried the amount of rent due to the Government. It was optional for any settler to take advantage of the Act, and most of them did so.

6809. By the CHAIRMAN: There were several kinds of conditions provided in the Act?—The various rates and taxes amount to just the same, so that freehold is no better now than leasehold, and thus the people are helped over a bad time.

6810. In South Australia they had a reconstruction, as they found it was no use in going on as they were. I was instructed on one occasion to report on the value of perpetual leases as security; it was found that they are better security than freehold in dry country, because they are more negotiable whenever it is desired to realise?—I have a good many tenants, and I have to humour them to keep them on the land waiting for better times.

6811. How are the settlers getting on in the Northern districts, at Northampton, Yuba, and Yuna?—They are all in the hands of the Agricultural Department, and I know a good number of them who do not care what happens to them. They would just as soon walk out as not, and scores of them have already done so.

6812. What do you consider the rainfall to be—Northampton is a little more than Geraldton, but you do not want so much rain there as here. Mullewa is from 12 to 16 inches and Northampton 22 inches. All the flour, bran, pollard, and hay once went away by a small fleet of boats, but as soon as railways were built the young people went away working and shearing, and the old ones stopped at home and only farmed in a small way for their own benefit.

6813. When I came here in 1904 I used to notice that the Victoria district wheat averages were the best in the State?—Yes, it was only in small areas. All the areas were small in those days. We ourselves