£3 per acre for the homestead block, 867 acres, and 15s. for lot 44 amounting to 567 acres, and 10s. 6d. for lot 38 comprising about 576 acres.

6931. What class of country are you paying 10s. 5d. and 15s. for?—It is called first class country. Part of it is first class and part second class. The Road Board have classified 800 acres of it as second class country. It is fair wheat growing land under ordinary conditions, but lots 44 and 37 are practically the same class of land although the prices are different, and the improvements were added to it. That is why it varies in price, and the improvements are not of much use to a farmer. My partner inspected the land before purchase and had had nothing to do with land and I myself could not get here in time. I came here from New South Wales, where I was connected with the Australian Land and Finance Company and Dalgety & Co. for years, and their stations. The land is three miles from the railway station for cartage purposes and the water supply is a well and a brackish creek. I have just had a well put down, but the water is not good and at present the stock will not drink it but the creek is fair stock water. It is always running, due to a spring under the creek bed. We hold the old original homestead. It is now fairly comfortable, but we have expended a lot of money on it. We have sufficient stabling for horses and sheds for our machinery, some of which we built ourselves. We have about 30 working horses and 400 sheep. I am a married and have one son, two years old. There is a State school a quarter of a mile from the homestead and the district seems well provided with school facilities. We are connected by telephone at Geraldton where our nearest doctor resides, unless there may be one at Northampton.

6932. What capital did you have when you ventured on farming here?—Our people bought the place for us and expended about £5,000 in the first place and we have had money from Dalgety & Co. We have not had any for development work. The banks will advance to us because we got our own people to finance us. We do most of our business through Dalgety & Co. and pay them every month. I have had no experience of the Agricultural Bank.

6933. To Mr. CLARKSON: We have 1,400 acres cleared and 830 in crop, of which 500 acres were fallow. I believe in fallow and have had it here in previous years. This year I think we will get six or seven bushels average increase on the fallow land.

6934. If the farmers went in more for fallow it would increase the annual yield?—The highest annual yield we have had has been 14 bushels over 930 acres. This year I think we will get about 12 or 13 bushels and to pay expenses it will cost 10s. a bag. I think 12 bushels would be necessary to pay expenses.

6935. Do you go in for any particular varieties of wheat?—Yandilla King and Comeback suit out place better than any others; doubtless a proper selection of wheats would increase the yield. We fallow four to five inches and cultivate it. The new country we only cultivate once and the old country we cultivate twice. We have had to cultivate after rain with a spring tooth. We have not tried to harrow. We have used the harrow in the Eastern States but not here. I cannot see that I can observe a very big thing in bulk handling because the Home Government make an extra allowance for the weight in bags and it is handiest for us. But I am strongly in favour of removing the tariff on farmer's goods.

6936. To. Mr. PAYNTER: In 1911 there was a small crop on the place affected by smut. In 1912 we had a fair crop, but only on a small area, still it was fairly good. In 1913 we had septoria. Federation is the wheat we had put in. We had about 900 acres affected by septoria. In 1914 we had a drought. In 1915 we had 1,150 acres ruined with rust and septoria. We pickle and grade our wheat. The only artificial crop we have tried is rape, but that is risky in this district, and is affected with aphis and grubs. Vegetables and fruit trees thrive well, especially oranges. We usually have some figs for our own use, and we have tried eggs for the market, but they were not a success. The property is an old one and has been infested with tick. The rate of wages varies, but for five years ours amounted to £1,312, an average of about £270 a year. We usually employ about three men, and they work from six to six. I work myself early and late, just now from about five in the morning till eight at night. In this district I think a settler requires at least 1,000 acres, but in our part he would need about 2,000 acres for cropping, and about 4,000 acres for stock. We have absolutely no sheep feed now. Perhaps I should say that a man should have 1,000 acres of farming land, and 2,000 acres of sand plain, and a man should be able to crop annually about 250 acres. I think that the principle of co-operation could be applied, and I know it has been found satisfactory in the East. It was started here, but was not a success, as the farmers will not pull together. I think they pull best together when they are hitched tail to tail. I do not think that the land regulations are at all easy. In some cases we are charged too much, and then there are the taxes and rates, and we seem to be paying out the whole time, while there was nothing coming in. I would suggest a reduction in some of the rents. The facilities for working are always against the farmer. We often have wheat here at the siding for days, and are unable to get trucks, which means double handling for the farmer. Up to the present we have not been able to persuade them to take delivery at the siding. We are carting wheat now, and this means two men going to the siding, and we have to re-handle that and put it into the truck, that is when we get one, so that the process is costly. Apparently there is a shortage of trucks. I loaded all the trucks they put in the siding, and range up for more, but they told me I might get one to-day perhaps, or to-morrow perhaps. There is always that kind of difficulty here. This is the new season's wheat, and is being taken over by the Government and sent to Dalgety & Co., who are stacking it. It is very long-standing trouble here, and we feel it, as we happen to be the largest farmers in the district.

6937. To Mr. CLARKSON: We use from 57lbs. up to about one cwt. of super., and about a bushel of seed on the average, but we use more on the light land. On forest land we sow 1½ bushels of early wheat. Taking it right through, the average would be about a bushel. We use four and five-burrow ploughs. We have twin discs and cultivators. We use eight horses, and can do about 6 1/2 acres a day. We use a 15-drill, which does about 17 acres a day, and two Sunshine harvesters, one a 7ft. and the other a 5ft. Both are equally satisfactory, and with the 7ft. we do about 12 acres. We find that very big machinery does not give the best results with us. It knocks the horses up.