handling should lessen the cost of the bags. We would have a wagon and tank on it, and the load could be passed over a weighbridge. A man would be able to have an elevator on his own place, but the process means the employment of two teams. No doubt larger implements should reduce costs, that is provided you have a lot of cleared land. In last year's crop I think there was a little blight, especially in the Curawa. Last year I did not grade my wheat. I am doing my best to raise pigs and poultry. Wages used to be 30s a week and keep. To make a decent living a man should hold at least 2,000 acres here, and should crop 250 to 300 acres on his own, that is if there was no root picking or suckering to do. I think the price of land is altogether too high, especially when you are 13 miles from a railway, but not if you are within a mile of it. The land should be graded from the railway siding out; instead of that the department charge me 15s an acre for land that is not worth more than 8s., on account of its situation. First-class land at that distance out should not be more than 12s. Poison country should not be charged for at all for the first five or six years, and deferring rents for five years would be a great advantage to the farmer, but no Government in the world could stand it. It would be better to put the rent on to the end of the period. Poison land should not be charged for at all. It is only fit for stock, and there is a great deal too much undeveloped country along the railway lines at the present moment. Super is altogether too dear. I have rabbits on my place, in fact one man got 90 in one morning there the other day. The inducement that we had to come so far out was the promise that the railway would come within a few miles, but they took it 17 or 18 miles south of the proposed route. We formed a deputation to the Minister, which was introduced by Mr Harper, but within a fortnight of that the railway Bill was passed, and we were left in the cold. We are troubled with a few wild dogs, while the machinery agents are another pest.

(The witness retired.)

F J STOBIE, Manager of the WA Bank (not sworn):

7881. By the CHAIRMAN: We would like to have your opinion on one or two matters and, first of all, I would ask you how long you have been resident here?▬For six years, and I was previously in agricultural districts in South Australia, at Bordertown, a class of country which approximates to this.

7882. What is the valuation of freehold land in this district, that is of your best forest land?▬ I cannot put a valuation on the land. There has not been an application for land here for the last four years. However, I think that land within five miles of the railway line, substantially improved, should be worth £4 to £5 an acre.

7883. How are the farmers getting on here?▬Some of them are competent and some are not. Those who farm well are holding their own, but they are not advancing. 7884. by Mr PAYNTER: Are they in a larger proportion?▬They are about equally divided. This year, with the higher prices obtaining, the competent men may pull ahead.

7885. By Mr VENN: Do you think the farmers should carry more sheep than they do?▬Stock is practically a negligible quantity here. Farmers should carry more than they do.

7886. By the CHAIRMAN: Where there is sound farming, the settlers are more successful?▬To a large extent, yes, because the people who are not suited to farming are reckless in expenditure in the initial stages. When times looked good they got more involved than they should have done, and all of them have larger burdens than they should have. Rental has to be found each year, and by the time they have paid interest and rental and machinery bills, and the cost of living here, they have less than nothing left. The majority of them have run their farms on borrowed capital, and there have been partial failures. For instance, in 1911, 1912, and 1913, the crops were reasonably good, and the price fair, but the year 1914 was a drought. The year 1911 threw them back to start with, and they did not pick up during the next two years, so that when 1914 came, they were thrown back altogether. The result of the hailstorm that visited this locality only affected a strip of the country. Taking the Kellerberrin rainfall as being the same as ours, the average, spread over 10 or 12 years, would be better than the last six years have indicated. An absolute drought was never known before, and over the next period of 10 years we should reasonably expect better seasons. The general opinion is that the crops here will average about 15 bushels this year, but so many of the farmers are so involved that the quantity of land cleared is so small, and the want of horses so severely felt, that I do not see how they will get ahead of it. I do not think the crop returns in this district for the last 12 years average a yield that will enable them to pull out of it, and unfortunately there are a lot of them involved.

7887. By the CHAIRMAN: In normal years could not as much wheat be grown here as the average of the rest of Australia?—We should average 15 bushels here.

7888. That would be better than the Australian Average. Therefore, there must be some local conditions which make the district worse than the rest of Australia?—I would not say so.

7889. Are the farmers getting more thrifty and careful now?—Yes; through force of circumstances. Six years ago here they were extravagant in the manner in which they spent the Agricultural Bank money. Many of them got the money easily and made no provision for the future, and were addicted to wastefulness.

7890. Can you notice the difference between those farmers financed by the associated banks and those assisted by the Government; are they a better stamp of settler?—I would not say that, although I think on the average those assisted by the Government are in more extreme circumstances.

7891. Have you any men here who have done well?—I think there are a few who have done well, men that I consider solvent to-day with good assets, and I think they will continue to make good; such men as Mr. C. Heale, the three brothers Haythorn-thwaite—They are five miles from here, and each of them has a farm; there is also E. J. Hinkley, Bryant & Waters, S. C. Dall, Frazier Bros., and H. Stower. In a period of six years these men had a partial drought, and an absolute drought which resulted in the loss of the entire crop, so that they have had