Part 6

Page 365
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This transcription is complete

Inclusive of what I have owe to the Government , I owe £127 to outside creditors.

7172. What was the Inducement for a man of your experience to take up 654 acres of land with a capital of £155?— When I came here first I took a contract for fencing. Then the Bowes estate was thrown open and the block I now occupy was the only not applied for. Pamphlets had previously been circulated in the United Kingdom to the effect that a man with £50 could start faming in Western Australia, and that the Agricultural Bank would advance money for clearing. I came from farming stock on both my mother's and father's side, and I have managed several farm in England. I came to the conclusion that if £50 was enough for an ordinary man to start farming in Western Australia, £155 was quite ample. I have done all my own work.

7173. To Mr. CLACKSON: I have 200 acres of crop, of which 35 acres is fallow, and it was the worst crop I had; that remark holds good throughout this district. I use on early wheat 70 lbs. of super. My highest average yield was 30 bushels. I got 21 bushels in 1913. This year I think it will go six bags . We have to pay 1s. to the Government, another 1s. 6d. to the Government, and 6d to the men on the wharf who handle the wheat, making 3s. It costs £2 4s. 9d. an acre to put in and take off a crop. That includes root picking, stone picking, harvesting, and depreciation. The only contract I gave for clearing cost me 30s. an acre. I use a four-furrow mouldboard plough and five horses, with which I do five acre a day. I use a 15 x7 drill and do 12 acres a day, and sunshine harvester six to seven acres. I think that bulk handing is the only salvation of the farmer in this State. I came to the conclusion that when it came into operation I would fit sides on to my lorry for conveyance to the train. The tariff affects us a great deal, and help to ruin us. For instance, at home a binder would cost £27 10s. For the same article here I have to pay £51. A sunshine harvester, which costs £120 here, is sold for £60 in the Argentine.

7174. Mr. PAYNTER  : Last year I had rust. I pickle my wheat, but do not grade it. I have tried maize growing, and have some seven feet high now, but it is adapted to this country . I have been in the dairying business and managed 40 cow in England, but I would not advocate it here after my experience, and I would not call this a dairying district. Vegetables grow well here, but they will not keep. I have grown every kind of vegetable, but as soon the hot weather comes they go off. I only keep two pigs, and hand feed them . I do not find poultry very profitable. When there are plenty of eggs they cannot be disposed of at anything like a profit; but this might be different if we had cold stores at Geraldton. I have had 40 or 50 dozen eggs thrown away because I was unable to sell them. I have feel satisfied that I have enough land myself, and when it is cleared it will carry three or four more sheep to the acre. The land in this state should be given free to the farmers. I think the principle of co-operation should be adopted, and until the farmers combine they will never do any good. I think the country is good enough but the administration of the land laws is rotten. Before I came here we were told the most liberal land laws in the world. We came here to virgin country and cleared the land , and I had to pay two and a half years' rent before I got my first crop. I ask the Government for money to purchase sheep, and I bought 76 sheep. What I sold in the wool has managed to make up a difference of £3 10s. a year between myself and a deficit. It would be a good thing if we all had five years' exemption. But on the other hand, if the State is going to prosper, the land should be given to the men who would cultivate it. The future generations are going to reap the benefit of the hard work that the farmer is doing to-day. If it were not for the heavy rent that I have to pay I could make a do of it, but the rent of the Bowes land is extortionate, and I am sure that wheat farming alone will not pay. The men who can afford stock are the men who have the money. That is why I say if we had facilities at Geraldton for storage we could carry three times as many sheep as we do at the present time. If there were freezing works in Geraldton I could get 200 sheep at least, and would grow fodder plants, such as rape etc. for them.

7175. BY the CHAIRMAN: You think if your rent was adjusted that you could make a success of it? —I am quite sure of it and I think too that the womenfolk should be studied a little more when they go on the land and that provision should be made to enable a house to be built for them and their surroundings made as habitable as possible.

7176.That is a matter which we will treat sympathetically, as we have found here and there that the condition under which some of the settlers and their wives are living are intolerable? —If we had normal season matters would be all right but my average over the whole time has not been 12 bushels, and mine is exceptionally good land. The third year I was here I got my good record crop. The following year I got 77 bags. Last year I got 366 bags, but afraid the price will be low.

(The witness retired)

THOMAS ROSCOE, Farmer, Bowes, sworn and examined:

7177. To the CHAIRMAN: I came here 5½ ago, when the Bowes estate was reviewed. I was reared on a farming Victoria until I was 24 years of age. Then I was mining for 16 years. I acquired 835 acres of Bowes estate, and 596 acres was of sand plain with poison The price of the 835 acres was 28s. an acre, and my annual payment in rent to the Government is £91 11s . I have got 500 acres cleared and the block is fenced. The sand plain cost 7s an acre. My water supply is one well of good water. I have four or five wells of salt of water. I am a single man. I have a house, stable and sheds, a full farming plant . 16 horses, including yearlings and eight of these are working horses. I also have 120 sheep. I had £5 when I started. I borrowed £490 from the Agricultural Bank, but nothing from the I. A. B. and to my outside creditors with bills coming due next February I think I must owe from £120 to £140.

7178. To Mr.CLARKSON; I have 396 acres of crop of which 160 acres is fallow, but it looks no good. I had fallow previously. One year I had no fallow, but the second crop was worse than the dry ploughing, and the same thing has happened this year. What I had last year I cultivated twice . This year I started.