8021. By Mr. PAYNTER: Are there any cases of distress in this district?-- I have not heard of any, but one man abandoned his farm owing to the working of the Industries Assistance Board. Nevertheless he returned, and was granted two horses to carry on with, as well as wheat and super. All he did with it was to spill it over the ground, and yet he is getting a 10-bushel crop, while other who put their seed in properly are not getting as good results. All this goes to show that if you leave your surface loose and have a dry spell you are done. On the other hand, if a man crops ground which is properly farmed, the seed seems to mature. The loose country out here ought to be rolled. The ground should be flattened in order to keep the sand from covering the plants, and after seeding the land should be packed with a "T" bar, and when the plants are two to three inches high light harrows should be dragged over them. It should be packed to make the soil round the seeds firm. (The witness retired.) _________________

ROBERT BERRY, Berry Bros., Farmer, Yawerlin, via Bruce Rock, sworn and examined:

8022-3. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in the district?-- Four years. Between three of us we hold 994 acres on which there are three homesteads, and the rest is Conditional Purchase priced at 19s.; 850 acres are first class and the property is 18 miles from the railway. There is no fencing on it; 350 acres have been cleared. Our water supply consists of a small dam now dry, so that we have to cart 5½ miles. We have a mud hut for a house. Two of us are married and one single, and we have bush stables, but no shed accommodation. We have no plough. We have five working horses, a few fowls and some pigs. We started on the land with nothing. I think we owe about £600. We have 300 acres of crop in this year averaging about nine bushels, and we hope to clear the board this year.

8024. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much of your land is fallowed?-- We had no fallow last year but we have about 50 acres for next year. We plough four or five inches deep. We use 45lbs. of seed to the acre on heavy land and 50 to 60lbs. of super. The highest yield we have had was between 17 and 18 bushels, but we lost 100 bags because we could not get it away. We had to feed it to pigs. We have not sufficient horses to do our work and we are so far away from the railway. We had 1,200 bags from the board last year and used every bag and had to borrow as well.

8025. By Mr. VENN: Are you troubled with rabbits--- They took some of our crop. We see dingoes occasionally. We are on the whole in rather a poor way. One brother lives at Claremont and another is here. I have my wife, sister, and brother. We get £10 a month from the board. I am carting three trips to Yawerlin every day, and my brother takes the load on from there to Bruce Rock. We have about a fortnight's carting left. It is really 17½ miles and it takes two handlings. (The witness retired.) _________________

RANDOLPH HILTON (Manager for Harold Currall, now at the front), Farmer, Wadderin, sworn and examined:

8026. By the CHAIRMAN: What is the size of the property you are managing?-- It is 2,000 acres, and situated 22 miles from the railway; 750 acres are first class, 350 acres are cleared. There is no fencing. There is a camp on the property, bush stables, no machinery shed and no water. There is a full set of implements, five working horses, and three foals. There are 30 acres in crop, yielding seven bushels. I sowed Comeback and a new wheat called "67." I sowed 15 bushels this year. Last year a small quantity of it went 33 bushels to the acre. I sowed five bags and a bushel this year and got 86 bags off fallowed land. I had a block of land of my own here, but my wife became ill, and as there was no doctor she had to go in to Bruce Rock. It was a serious maternity case, and she was lying ill from two in the morning till five in the afternoon. A district nurse should undoubtedly be provided, and the settlers should pay half her wages and the Government the other half. On my land I cleared 140 acres this year. I put in 320 acres without any assistance excepting that of my wife, who has sown 600 bags for me. (The witness retired.) _________________

THOMAS PRITCHARD SAVAGE, Farmer, East Kumminin, sworn and examined:

8027. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in the district?-- I came here in 1911, having no previous experience of farming. I was a railway employee for 14 years. I hold 2,000 acres of land, the classified price of which was 22s. 6d. It has been reduced, I think, to 15s. 6d. for one block and the other block to 19s. 6d. Fifteen hundred acres are first class, of the balance 160 acres are second and third class, and 340 acres of morrell. The property is 25 miles distant from the railway, but when the latter is continued to Emu Hill it will be within three miles of one block and six miles of the other. I have 500 acres fenced and a 50-acre horse paddock. Four hundred acres have been cleared. I have a dam, 9ft. deep, 1,000 cubic yards in extent, in rocky ground, not covered. My neighbour's stock have been watering at it, and another neighbour has been drawing 300 gallons a day from it. There is still 4ft. of water in it. I am a married man with three children, and the school is only three chains distant. I have an iron and canvas house, a stable, but no shed, a full set of implements, five working horses, two foals, two ponies, a cow and calf. I had about £20 capital when I came here, also a mate, who afterwards went to the war. He had £700, some of which was spent on my land. I owe the Agricultural Board between £400 and £500. I have 350 acres of crop this year, averaging seven bushels. In 1912 I put in 50 acres in morrell land and got eight bushels of wheat to the acre and 8cwt. of hay. The next season we did not put it in. In 1915-16 I put in Federation and got between 21 and 22 bushels off it. This year I got eight bushels to the acre.