district than by keeping people on the land. The Government of South Australia erected freezing works there which provided a great success, cause they kept the people on the land. For instance, if the Government gave a man so many cows and told him to go ahead and help himself or starve, the chances are he would go ahead. But so long as they are drawing £3 a week from the Government in sustenance, they are not going ahead. Unless they are prepared to place people in a position to help themselves it would not be fair to do otherwise than they are doing now. If we all went in for pigs in six months we would glut the market in Perth.

7004. By Mr. CLARKSON: The salvation of the farmer has to be worked out from the export point of view. The Government would do well to supply ewes on easy terms rather than let the natural feed go to waste, as it is doing now in so many places.

(The witness retired.)

JAMES PARK LAUDER, Farmer, Yetna, sworn and examined:

7005. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been in this district since 1870, and have about sold off all my land. and I have been occupying 5,000 acres, and my house is about a mile from the railway station. About 1,500 acres is good farming district; the balance is partly poison country and grazing country. Twelve hundred acres of third class land cost 3s. 9d. I have also 250 acres at 10s., and a little over 3,000 acres of poison land at 1s. There are still about 20 acres of poison left yet. I have not got the freehold. The whole is fenced and subdivided with sheep-proof fencing. There are four wells on it. I have no stables, but I have a machinery shed, and a seven-roomed house, and a full farming plant to work the land with. When I have over the place I had 200 sheep, after having sold 800 sheep off it.

7006. By Mr. CLARKSON: How many sheep do you carry on your property?—About 1,000, but I have carried 1,400. I have no crop in this season. From fallowing I would expect to get three or four bushels of an increase per acre. To do without fallow is to invite failure. Up to two years ago we believed in Federation wheat, but the wheat that does best should be sown if you want to increase your yield. We want a medium early wheat, and one that will stand up and hold the grain. That we have not got yet, but the Yandilla King can always be depended upon. The highest average yield I have had from Federation was 8½ bags, and over the whole area I had in it would not average more than 15 bushels. That was in 1913, and I had 120 acres in. Last year I got nothing, although I had over 200 acres in crop. The rust settled it. Practically for the last two years I have had little or nothing. The year before last we had drought, and last year rust. Once it was started going properly, I think that bulk handling would be an advantage here. Bags and machinery are both a great expense, and I think that the duty is one of the biggest iniquities the farmer suffers from. Hitherto I have practically got my livelihood out of fat sheep and fruit growing. It cost me £350 for machinery, and I have not yet got interest on my money. That is what wheat growing here means. I started orange growing on four acres of land, and I have taken more money off it than if I had hundreds of acres of wheat land. I went sandalwood getting to keep things going. I remember that 40 years ago there was rust on the Greenough flats, but I had not seen it since until this last visitation. About 15 years ago I had an acre of lucerne, but the water was only four feet away from it, and it gradually died off. I do not think it will do here without irrigation. I have also African grass, which I planted.

7007. By Mr. PAYNTER: What is the minimum quantity of land for general farming that a man should hold?—Two thousand acres, and a man is doing well if he cultivates 150 acres annually. He has to fallow and put in his crop and take it off, and do other jobs besides. I think that if the farmers would co-operate for the purchase of supplies and machinery and form themselves into a big body, it would be a good thing, but the farmer is not built that way. The price of land is far too high, and any man would be out of pocket for the first give years and should therefore have his land free, with no taxes to pay. You could not go further than that. At the present time if the farmer does not get some concession, three-fourths of the land will be abandoned.

7008. To Mr. VENN: I have been raising sheep for 24 years, and merinos do best. Lincolns do not do so well on my country, but the merino will pick up his living anywhere. It is a good fat lamb district. If a man farms his land and puts in a crop every third year his stubble will carry ten times more sheep than the natural grasses. Then next year he has a good crop on the stubble. We could raise enough sheep here to establish a freezing works in Geraldton among ourselves. Dairying would be a good side line here.

7009. By the CHAIRMAN: After your half-century's experience, do you consider that a man who has 1,000 acres of first class land and 1,000 acres of second class land would have a property worth £2 an acre?—I think it should be worth more than that. I would value the land well improved with a house and wells and everything in good order, at £4 or £5 an acre; that at any rate is my own experience.

7010. By Mr. CLARKSON: But could a man pay that price and make a living out of mixed farming, namely, on 1,000 acres of first class and a similar area of second class land?—I should say the first class is worth £5 and the second class 50s. to £3 an acre, and he certainly could pay that price and expect to make a living out of it with mixed farming.

(The witness retired.)

AUGUST DESIRE L'HUILLIER, Farmer, Mount Erin, sworn and examined:

7011. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been here 11 years, and had a lifelong experience of farming in the Gunbower district of Victoria. I hold 1,331 acres myself, and 700 acres in conjunction with others. I have 500 acres with my brother, and 200 acres on the share system with another farmer. There are 1,831 acres between myself and my brother. It is all on a repurchased estate, Mount Erin. The price is 9s. an acre plus interest. Fully half of it would be suitable for cultivation, and there is give miles cartage to the railway station. We have 750 acres cleared