consider that the payment of rent from the start of a man's occupancy of land is simply crippling the industry, and I would favour exemption for five to seven years, or until a man has made a farm. I am not satisfied with the price of the land and I consider 21s. an acre an extortionate figure. In my own case at the most it should be only 12s. As regards the improved conditions, when a man wants more clearing done the bank does not advance enough to enable him to do it.

8106. By Mr. VENN: Are you troubled with rabbits?-- They are getting bad, and if they increase in the next two years proportionately they will eat us all out. They are burrowing now, yet five years ago you would not see one in a year. Dingoes are about also, and anyone going in for sheep would find them most troublesome.

8107. By Mr. PAYNTER: What is the cost of the clearing?-- Twenty-five shillings an acre.

8108. By the CHAIRMAN: Have you applied to the department for poison for the rabbits?-- No, but I expect to go to the City shortly and will see about it then. There is plenty of water in my dam and it is not netted in. I have not applied to the Government for netting yet. Half the rabbits about do not trouble to go near the dam for drink.

8109. By Mr. VENN: This is good sheep country, is it not?-- Yes, and the opinion is that if the farmers were assisted, as soon as their farms were capable of running stock, it would be a means of making farming a payable proposition. At present the stubble is wasted.

8110. By the CHAIRMAN: You could not carry stock without water?-- If one had an ample water supply he would have to yard the sheep, in any case, over night. We think the Agricultural Bank should be more liberal in advancing for the erection of a decent house. The average housing in the district, if occupied by black fellows, the farmer would be cried shame on. Nine out of every ten crops in 1914 were failures and. consequently, not two per cent. of the farmers can show anything like a clear balance. I have two small rooms for the use of my wife and five children, and every time a man enters it, it galls me. I and my neighbour are suffering from the want of school accommodation, and unless the Government will relax their regulations we will have no hope. The children are growing up without being taught anything. In our immediate vicinity there are eight children of school age. (The witness retired.) _________________

WILLIAM HAROLD WATSON, Farmer, Blauvannin, Corrigin, sworn and examined:

8111. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in the district?-- Since 1910. I was previously farming in the Old Country. I hold 1,582 acres, of which 900 are first class and 300 acres ironstone gravel, quite useless for wheat growing. The balance is scrub plain. I pay 12s. 6d. for 682 acres and 8s. 6d. for the balance. I am two miles from the railway on one block and three miles distant on the other. I have 230 acres fenced, 525 acres cleared, of which 360 acres are first class. My water supply is a Government dam two miles away. I have no water myself. If I had money I could put half a dozen dams down in good catchments, but the Agricultural Bank will not pay us sufficient advance for this. I am a married man, but have no children, My house was burnt down and all my papers destroyed. I have an iron roof and gimlet stable. My machinery shed forms part of the stable. I have seven implements, eight working horses, and two foals. When I started I had a capital of £180. I have borrowed over £650 from the Agricultural Bank and the Industries Assistance Board have taken over my debts, which would amount to about £600, without this present harvest. I have 220 acres of crop going about nine bushels.

8112. by Mr. PAYNTER: How much of that was fallow?-- Ninety acres. I plough 4in. The most suitable seed for me is Federation and a species of Lott's. I sow a bushel of seed and 60lbs. of super to the acre. The present is the highest yield I have yet had. It would take nine bushels to put in and take off a crop. I have two ploughs, a four-furrow, and an eight disc. I use five horses in the former and eight in the latter, and I could do five and eight acres a day respectively with them if I had not to cart water, as I do. I have a 17 cultivator, which does 10 acres, and a 15-disc drill that does 15 acres, and I cart my own seed and super. I use neither harrows nor binder. I have a 6ft. Union harvester, which does six acres daily. I consider the use of larger implements and teams would not be an advantage to me because there is too much work for one man as it is. The tariff increases the price of everything we use on the farm, and there should either be reduction in it or free trade. I have no authentic information in regard to bulk handling so far, only what I have read. I have had no disease in my crops. I pickle but do not grade my wheat. I have tried vegetables and potatoes and sometimes I have been successful but at other times not. I do my own work. I have had one man employed for six weeks at 35s. a week. I find that the labour is satisfactory if you can only get it. No man in this district should have less than 900 acres, and he should work his land on the two years' system, or the three years' system if possible, and should have 300 acres fallow each year. Working by himself, with a little help at harvest and seed time, he should do 300 acres all fallow. You could acquire land easily enough out here, but the difficulty is to pay the rents. If we had five years free a great many farmers would forge ahead. Personally, I am satisfied with the price of the land if I could obtain some such exemption. I have poison on my land and that is a great drawback and I am, therefore, making an application to the department in connection with it. I would like to suggest that the Government should do something in connection with the housing problem. It is hard for a woman to be without a roof over her head.

8113. By the CHAIRMAN: If the Government find the iron and timber, do you think you could make an effort to put up the house yourself?-- Yes, but as I am placed, we had our house burnt down on the 1st December last and we lost every single thing, including our clothes. We wrote to the Industries Assistance Board asking for help to erect a house, but they referred me to the Agricultural Bank. I applied to them next and the reply I received was that the bank would grant a loan for