in as much as I could with a view to pulling up my arrears. I have 300 acres cleared and if I fallowed the half I would have no hope of paying my working and living expenses. However, I put in 300 acres last year and 270 this year. the land is pretty dirty. Next year I should put in half and fallow the other half, or try and get land elsewhere and fallow the lot. In 1909 we got 28 bushels over 300 acres but portion of that was on another man's property and we gave him a quarter of the crop. Under ordinary circumstances it would not pay to rent land unless it was strong and clean Last year from 300 acres I sold 1,160 bags and I retained 67 bags for seed and cut 25 tons of hay, somewhere about four bags. This year I have insured it for 14 bushels . At the present time it would take 28s. to 30s. an acre to put in and take a 15-bushel crop I sow about one bushel of seed to the acre and about 60Ibs. of super. I have only a three furrow plough. Last year I hired a four-furrow.With six horses I can do 11 acres a day. I have a 14-disc drill and and can do 11 acres a day. I have a sunshine harvester this year. I had a reaper-thresher before. Eight acres would be a fair day's work cultivating. I got a reaper-thresher in 1910. It broke down because it was never a satisfactory machine. It was one of the first three that were introduced into this country. We were offered a concession to introduce it . there are too many wearing parts in it. Last year it broke and I borrowed a Sunshine from my brother. The machine turned out now is much better than the old one. Bulk handing would undoubtedly reduce our working cost and we would have to convey the grain in a wagon or buy bags and cart it. One bale of bags would do for a year or two. All farmer's machinery should come in free of all duty . It seems to me we are paying too much already and the cost of production is too high. We have to place our produce on the markets of the world and take our chance. There is a heavy duty on jute goods also which we should not be asked to pay, as we cannot produce the articles here.

7471-2. to Mr. PAYNTER: Last year I had rust. All that I sow after rain I pickle. what I sow before rain I do not pickle. Sowing before rain seems to resist rust. I had smut on that. It was on wet ground. I do not grade the wheat beyond clearing it in the Sunshine and putting it through the winnower. Vegetables do well here. I put in a few vines but the white ants ate them out. I have not done much with pigs. I started with three sows. I have a couple of acres for pig paddock, two sows and a boar, and the drought struck so I had to sell the pigs and poultry but I have some poultry again now. I do not employ labour because I cannot afford it but 30s to 35s a week and find is about the ruling rate. labour is getting less satisfactory. the average farmer is not in the position to employ constant hands as the work is casual and men therefore drift into other avenues of employment. A mixed farmer in this district should have not less than 1,000 acres of land and single-handed he should be able to deal with 300 acres annually, Co-operation is an excellent thing. We have tried it to a small extent. It is a melancholy fact that when you ask farmer to co-operate they immediately begin to act individually, bot they have never been organised properly and must gradually come about. We did a little in the way of freights and purchase of bags here. Some of us got a truck of bags and saved 9s. 7d. a bale. another man sent for one bale and it cost him 16s. I do not think the land laws are too bad, bot forest land is valueless until it is cleared. I have been paying rent and Road Board rates and land taxes for eight years for land that I have not got a quarter out of. I have not cleared it because I have not had money to do it with. I am prepared to say that a man should get his land for nothing . I do not think the land laws prevent a man from succeeding. I have not had much concession with regard to my rent but there are other things which require most adjustment. the tricky nature of the railway freights is a problem fostering of industries provided a local market for produce, but when you consider we have to pay land tax and income, Road board rates, taxes on bags and machinery and wool packs, it will be easily seen that an undue proportion of protection is the lot of the farmer.

7473. To Mr. VENN: I would like to go in for sheep, and if the Government would supply sheep on extended terms it would suit me. I could carry 100 breeding ewes and possible more, and they would keep my land clean. Unless you fallow you cannot keep your land clean In 1914 I had the best fallow in the district, and had to get my neighbour's sheep on it to keep it clean. This is not a dairying district. it is too hot and too far away from the market. I have one cow myself. the winter rain begin in the middle of May and soon after take up. The dry feed is not much good. You would have to feed stock for six months in the year. I have not seed any poison but I am told there is poison between here and Arrino. I have already referred to the duty on jute goods Then there are the excessive shipping rates that we suffer from, and the number of hands that our produce passes through, but the present pool scheme looks like an effective organisation. If it could be worked satisfactorily, so must the better, but we should not be left to the whims of speculative buyers. Then again, the railway freights are far too high,. Mixed farming is the only means by which farming can be made to pay. In a new district there is something like £500 to £1,000 in the shape of dams standing between the farmer and development. No doubt a good deal of our trouble may be traceable to the industrial unrest that prevails at present in the shape of strikes and slowing down. They have had the effect of putting up the cost of every commodity that the farmer requires. The way to overcome these difficulties is to educate the people. if coal cost more and iron cost more these costs go to the manufactured machine and finally are passed on to the farmer's cost. I think myself it would be a good idea to compile a standard work on industrial economy and to have it circulated widely, and I think it would prove to be a good investment. These troubles are like an epidemic, and when an epidemic breaks out it is as well to deal with it promptly.

7474. To Mr. CLARKSON: If I had more land cleared I could certainly succeed here.

(The witness retired.)

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JOHN LANG, Farmer Carnamah, sworn and examined:

7475. To the CHAIRMAN: I came here from Scotland in 1914. I was born and brought up on a farm and was after in the sugar refinery business.