WEDNESDAY, 13th DECEMBER, 1916. (At Walkaway.)

Present: J. O. Giles, Esq., Chairman. B. L. Clarkson, Esq. H. H. Paynter, Esq. F. E. Venn, Esq.

HUGH EDWARD HAMMERSLEY, Farmer, Walkaway, sworn and examined:

7303. To the CHAIRMAN: I was born in this district, and have been back in it for the past 18 years. I am a land-holder. I have about 1,700 acres of agricultural land, and 2,000 acres of C.P., grazing third-class country.

7304. What is the value of good agricultural land in normal times?—There are so many different qualities of land. I am somewhat conservative about it, because I think land should be fallowed, and what it will produce and the value of the product must have a relation to the value of the land. I think good land is this district is worth £4 an acre under normal conditions. I have carried one sheep tot he acre all year round. My average for wheat growing for ten years has been about 15 bushels to the acre, but wheat is only a secondary consideration with me. I do not fallow. My water supply consists of wells which are deep, and the water impregnated with lime and magnesia. I have one well 90ft., another 60ft., another 106ft., and another of 55ft. My grazing lease country is gravel and sandplain. I bought that two years ago, and paid 7s. 6d. an acre for it. Third class land is £6 5s. a thousand acres.

7305. Is settlement in the district prosperous on the whole?—Mr Duncan, one of the roads board members, told me there is not a man in the Greenough district under the Industries Assistance Board. They all seem to be able to get along well. The principal uses the land is put to are wheat-growing, chaff and sheep, and the fat lamb industry. Holdings are of all sizes. When Mt Erin and Oakabella were thrown open, the men went from small holdings here and took up the land there. The holdings on the Back Flats, leaving out my uncle's property, which contains 5,000 acres, contain anything from 500 to 1,000 acres, or even over that; some of them are 200 and 300 acres. The nearest medical man is in Geraldton. The roads in the district are good, and the doctors have motor cars, and we have telephones. We are only about an hour from Geraldton. There is a school at Walkaway, and another in Georgina. Then there are the sisters at the Convent at Bootenal. There is another at the north end of Greenough, one at Central Greenough, and another at the South end.

7306. Do you find that the paid experts of the Agricultural Department have been of any assistance to the farmers in this district in regard to methods of cultivation, and so on?—I think they may have induced men to experiment, but the farmer is a conservative person. No doubt a certain amount of good has been done, but there is a lot of theory among our friends in Perth. Given a good man who thoroughly understands his work, he should be an aid to the district. I could give you an instance of a fruit inspector asking two little boys standing under a castor oil tree whether the tree grew many figs.

7307. By Mr CLARKSON: Do you think the agricultural experts spend sufficient time amongst the settlers?—We do not care too much about them here, but probably that is our own fault. Perhaps we should have asked them to come.

7308. But when men without money were being put on the land by them they should send the officials among them?—Undoubtedly the man who wants teaching should have someone to teach him. Still, we do not see very much of them. I usually crop about 200 acres, but I do not fallow. Nevertheless where fallow could be done it would be a good thing in the summer. Most of my country is light loamy soil and we have southerly winds and some of the fallow would be shifted into somebody else's field. In the heavier ground, where one can fallow, it is very beneficial. If a man is wheat-growing as a specialty, he must fallow. It will enable him to get crops in early and keep his ground clean and get the nitrogen back into his soil. Personally, I grow Lott's, and for later planting, Bunyip or "Seventy-three," and we have a wheat that originally came from Canada, called Diamond Grain. It belongs to this district now. It will stand a certain amount of drought and never sheds. It yields very well. I have known it to go 20 bushels. I sow one and a-half bushels of seed and 60lbs. to 70lbs. of super to the acre, but our soil contains a lot of lime. Bulk handling should certainly reduce our costs, and it is very evident that our costs must be reduced, if we are to make any profit out of the industry. So far as the tariff is concerned, the farmer at the present time is trying to live and carry on his industry as a free-trader in a highly protective country. He is selling his produce in the open markets of the world and is compelled to buy all his necessaries in a heavily protected country, which is quite an anomaly. Actually we are paying 70 per cent. more for our machinery than is paid outside the Commonwealth.

7309. To Mr PAYNTER: I do not think this district requires the cultivation of artificial grasses, there is such a wealth of natural grasses here. In summer, without irrigation, they would not be the