7644. By Mr CLARKSON: What is about the average quantity of water a farmer with 1,000 acres uses now? —Some of the farmers are well advanced, while others are in the initial stages. A man with 1,000 acres cleared and just starting would be in a different position from a well established settler.

7645. My idea is for him to have a dam which will see him through two years? —I think most of the farmers' tanks are wrongly constructed.

7646. My idea in asking the question was to ascertain what his requirements would amount to under that proposed scheme of dam making, and a dam should be of sufficient size to carry a man over a couple of years.

7647. Mr CASTILLA: I put down over 400 tanks and wells in two years from the Murchison in the North to the Stirling Ranges in the South. We have 35 hand plants in stock, nine were transferred or sold and are now written off, 10 are in use departmentally, 24 are loaned to settlers, and two to other departments, making a total of 80 in all. At a cost as low as 1s. 3d. and as high as 4s. a yard, the average would be about 2s.

7648. By the CHAIRMAN: I take it there is no artesian site in the districts under your control? —No.

7649. Mr NEUGHAR: The 3in. plant will bore 100ft. to 150ft. in depth and the first cost is about £35. If you get 3in. and 4in. tools you could bore to 250ft., and the first cost of the plant would be £50. We have one cable plant capable of going 2,000ft., but it would require £500 to put it in order. We have one diamond drill plant capable of 2,000ft. or 3,000ft., but that requires £1,000 spent on it.

          (The witness retired.)
               
                 -----------------

THOMAS HAMLET HARRISON, M.L.A., Farmer, Doodlakine, sworn and examined:

7650. By the CHAIRMAN: With reference to the water question, we would invite you to make a statement to us? —My opinion is that as far as water supply is concerned Western Australia suffers more than any other part of Australia, that is so far as water supply for stock or ordinary purposes. But I want to say that if that were put into the Press it would be damaging to the State. Nevertheless, it is a fact that in many portions of the country, more especially the timber country, you cannot get a supply of stock water. It is generally too brackish. In our own district it has been shown that wheat alone is not profitable considering the world's price and our average yield, so it is therefore essential to carry as much stock as possible as well as growing wheat. That being so, the water supply is the first thing to be considered. Sir John Forrest made a national question of the Goldfields Water Scheme. Still more is the agricultural industry and the development of the wheat lands a national matter. Mutton, wheat, hay, and beef area t high prices. I consider that agricultural water supply should be a national undertaking and that the farmer should not be expected to make the extensions a paying proposition. I stated that at the conference, an at various deputations to the Minister it was pointed out to us that the scheme must be made a payable proposition. I have asked that it should be made a payable proposition from the farmers' point of view. I have pointed out that at the present charge per thousand gallons and at the rate we pay, it is not a payable proposition. When you take the extensions at 6s. per thousand, and the fourpenny rate, with the £5 holding fee in advance of that, the position becomes acute. Of course you are aware that we are not charges any excess until the rate is fully consumed, so that we are on the 6d. rate, but if stock had to be carried, it would not be long before the fourpence per acre was consumed. Is it possible for any man in the out-back country here to enter into competition with the man in the Eastern States where there is a water supply and the world's market.

7651. You want the nationalisation of water? —Yes. And the farmer has another handicap as a tax-payer. He is helping to supply free water on the goldfields and to out-back country over and above his own supply and reticulation. Why should he pay upon a different basis if he is not on the main? —The cost is greater to give him facility, but it should be maintained by the Government and not by the individual. Personally I would rather have the money from the Agricultural Bank to make a dam, and get it decently roofed for domestic purposes, and know how the water is coming, than in a haphazard condition out-back. A lot of my constituents would go for me if they heard me say that, because when they were carting water they would have given anything for the scheme. What they said was "Let us get the scheme and then afterwards try and get a reduction from the Government." Therefore I do not wish this to be made public.

7652. By Mr PAYNTER: I have cone to the conclusion that the farmer should be helped to make his own dam? —Well, when I started at Doodlakine I had to cart water from Mooranoppin and occasionally from Baandee Soak. We were not allowed to take water from the scheme, and every trip the farmer makes carting water is a dead loss to the man himself, and an economical loss to the State, because the farmer would be better employed in production. Knowing this, and having gone through the mill, I would rather do it again and get my own dam sunk and a decent supply for domestic purposes and depend on my catchment, than depend upon a burden that will be more than the cost of land rent. The farmer has not only the tax on his water scheme, but he is a tax-payer; he has been building up the goldfields supply and the supply to other centres. That is the position in a nut-shell. Again, a number of farmers who have only drawn a very small amount of water, compared ti what they are entitled to within the 1½ mile limit, have found the burden to be so heavy, because they had not the stock to make use of it, and they were not prepared for stock. But we cannot recommend it at the present time on account of finances and the difficulty of procuring pipes, but if I were Minister of Water Supply and things were normal, I would not hesitate to duplicate the present main as far as Yerbillon. We were told at the Tammin conference that did you draw your supply of water at another period of the year other than midsummer, water could be got at a cheaper rate. But they said "We are working at the full limit, and we cannot give you water except at higher rates." How-