three years of failure, but this year they will be out of debt. The same remark applies to Mr C O Bland.

7892. By the CHAIRMAN: None of those that you have named have been in to see us?—I urged one of the Haythornthwaites to come in. I may add that I have full faith in the district itself. Good land well farmed is a payable proposition. There is another feature. If you follow the forest country and map it out, those who are doing best you will find are in the forest, while those on the lighter country are in the worst stages. It is quite significant here that a man on good land can look after himself. Comparing this locality with Bordertown, the rainfall is 16 inches to 18 inches, but the climate there is similar to this. When I went there land was £2 10s., but it rose to £4 and £5. Eighty per cent of the farmers keep breeding sheep. I was stationed there for three years. Very few of them were in debt when harvesting came along. If they did not have the sheep they could not have done so well. Even with a small flock of breeding ewes, the farmers here would thrive very much better.

(The witness retired.)

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WEDNESDAY, 31st JANUARY, 1917 (At Kwollyn) Present: J O Giles, Esq. (Chairman), H H Paynter Esq. / F E Venn Esq. LESLIE GORDON BROWN (Brown Brothers), Farmers, Kwollyn:

7893. By the CHAIRMAN: When did you come to this district?▬I have been here for seven years. Previously I was getting farming experience. I have been to longerenong Agricultural College, Victoria, for three years. I was induced to come west owing o the opportunities offered to farmers. Then again, to start on the other side a man must have a big outlay for a small area and there were three of our family to be provided for. We hold 4,000 acres, of which 3,000 acres is first class farming land. The balance is scrub plain and sand plain. We bought every farm we have. We have a block of 1,000 acres at Shackleton, and 2,000 acres nine miles out, and 1,000 acres 2½ miles east. We are working the Shackleton land at present. We have 3,000 acres boundary fenced and 1,500 acres cleared. We have the water scheme on our 2,000 acre block, but we do not use 6,000 gallons a year. We also have a soak. It is running over all the summer and is 8ft deep. The land would carry 1,000 sheep. For the scheme water we are rated 4d per acre. You have to pay 6s a thousand after you have got your allowance. It costs us on two blocks about £85 a year. The scheme water does not touch the block that we are living on. It would cost £100 to lay the water on and we found it would not pay to do it.

7894. The rate on the 2,000 ace block would not be more than£38?▬I may be making a mistake.

7895. How is the other block watered?▬There is no water at Shackleton. None of us are married. We have a four roomed house, stables and machinery shed, full set of farming implements, 14 working horses, 340 sheep, about 25 pigs and six head of cattle. Our capital was found by our mother and some of the blocks are in her name. On two of the blocks we have a mortgage with the Commercial Bank.

7896. Have you found the banks ready to supply money for your operations?▬We got a mortgage from the bank at first. They will not advance us anything now. We have to keep our accounts square or get roused upon. We are reducing the mortgage every quarter.

7897. By Mr PAYNTER: What crop have you in this year?▬Seven hundred acres. Last year we had 1,300 but 600 of that was on the share system. For the last three years we averaged 500 acres of crop. Seventy-five per cent of that is fallow. We use 80lbs of super and about 45 to 50lbs of seed to the acre. We run the seed through a winnower. The highest yield we have obtained was 24 bushels last year. This year we have averaged 11 bushels with 700 acres.

7898. By Mr VENN: Why do you not run more sheep on your area?▬There is a lot of poison on it and the only place we can run stock with safety is on the thousand acre block, where there is no poison at all.

7899. If improved, what would be the capacity of your area for sheep?▬If we had 3,000 acres fenced off and run you could run double the number of sheep in winter as in summer. Actually, we are over-stocked. We lost 20 sheep in one night from dogs. Some times we have yarded our sheep. The rabbits are increasing but so far they have not done so much damage. There has been a large increase of rabbits during the last 12 months, probably amounting to 100 per cent. The kangaroos have knocked down a little of our crop. In the winter they were thick but in summer the want of water and poison kills them out. Cultivation will not get rid of the box poison.

7900. The CHAIRMAN: Box poison can be destroyed by cutting it off or pulling.