building a house if the inspector's report was favourable.

8114. B y Mr. VENN : Are the rabbits at all troublesome ? - Yes, both rabbits and kangaroos are doing damage. I would like to ask you if kangaroos are protected, as I am informed that they are. I lost 10 acres of my crop through them this season.

                                                                   ( The witness retired )

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GEORGE WILSON (Wilson & Sons) , Farmer, Fremnell's, Bendering, sworn and examined:

8115. BY the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in this district? - Since 1912. All my previous experience was in England, where I was running a sheep and cattle farm for five years. Here I hold 2,500 acres, of which 1,500 is first class. I have three sons and hold two blocks in my own name and two in the names of my sons. The balance of the land has a fair amount of lake country and scrub on it, Which is not fit for clearing. The property is situated 17½ miles away from the railway at Dunn's Soak; 450 acres are fenced, 780 acres cleared, all first class land. The water supply is a dam which is situated two and a-half miles away. I have a dam, but there has been no rain. It is 1,150 yards capacity, 8 feet 6 inches deep; the bottom is rocky. It is too big to cover in. It cost 1s. 6d. a yard on contract. I sank a trial hole nine feet square.

My three sons are at the war; they are grown up. I have an iron-roofed house with canvas walls, a 10-stall iron and timber stable, a good implement shed and a set of implements, seven working horses, a cow, two calves and 20 pigs. I had £670 capital when I started and I borrowed from the Agricultural Bank £1,000. I have been on the Industries assistance Board since it started and owe them about £400 or £500. I had 500 acres in crop, but 200 were burnt by fire and were estimated to go 16 bushels. The average is, however, about eight and a-half bushels.

8116. By Mr. PAYNTER : How much of that was fallow? - Two hundred and fifty acres. I plough 4½ inches to 5 inches and find Lott's and Currawa the most suitable. I sow a bushel of Lott's to the acre and three - quarters of a bushel of Currawa. The Currawa did very well. I used with it 56lbs. of super; 24 bushels has been my highest average and that was last year. I have a three-furrow plough and four horses and do three acres a day, a 17 cultivator, which does nine acres, and a 17 drill, which does 17 to 20 acres. We use the State six foot stripper and do seven acres a day with it. I think a six-foot harvester would do as much work as a seven-foot, when you consider the turning of corners and a big team. My neighbour has a seven-foot and we can get as much off with our six-foot as he can with his seven-foot. I like to cultivate twice, but the bulk of the land is only done once.

We were carting until the end of March last year and did not finish stripping until the end of February. Bulk handling would, I think, be a great help. I think tanks would be the best thing for handling the crop in, but suction would have to be employed, or else bags. I had smut badly this year. I pickle, but do not grade. I use the State winnower, however. I have a small kitchen garden and the last year we had vegetables all the year round, but this year we could not spare the water for them. No man should hold more than 900 acres, 300 for fallow, 300 for crop, and 300 for sheep. The amount we could crop annually would not amount to 300 acres. I have applied for an eight - furrow disc plough.

I will tell you the way I was "bit" when I landed here. They boomed the land in the Old Country. Actually I had to pay three months rent for nothing before I could get on to the land and before I got 100 acres cleared I had paid £60 away in rent. I got 150 acres cleared and had to get machinery, which saddled me with £500 of debt. We were unable to clear an acre a day like some of them say they do and so the capital we had was soon spent. We were told in the official publications issued in England that "you never get a drought." Otherwise, I am satisfied with the land; it is undoubtedly good, but the price is too high. It was 22s. 6d. and 21s., but now I think it has been reduced to 13s. 6d. Then, on top of that there are the rates.

I do not think that any rent should start until a man has been four or five years on his land, but in other respects the conditions are all right. As I say, I was charged three months rent from a given date, which was three months before I actually arrived in the State, and I produce the documents here to prove my statement, also the receipt for my passage. The point is this, that the Government gets too much out of a settler. We are also crippled in our carting. To go in and out here, I have to start at 3 a.m. Why do they not have a "Dump no. 3" at Bendering? - There are 20,000 or 30,000 bags of wheat which otherwise will come to Corrigin. I have very great faith in the district and when the new railway is here, I should do well.

                                                        ( The witness retired )

WILLIAM SOMMERS KIRKWOOD, Farmer, Corrigin, sworn and examined:

8117. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in the district?-- Since 1909. I was four years farming at Dangin. I have 1,640 acres of first class, with the exception of 40 acres of sandplain. I paid 11s. an acre for 1,000 acres and 16s. 6d. for the 640 acres, which has been reduced to, I think, 11s. The property is 14½ miles south-east from the railway. No fencing has been done on it. As a matter of fact I have 7½ miles of roads that have to be fenced. They allowed me £50 to do five miles of fencing, but that is quite inadequate. I cannot do it myself because I am farming single-handed, including bag-sewing. I have 418 acres cleared. There is a permanent soak on the land, but I have had to cart once or twice since I have been here. I have also a well, but that it not reliable.

I am a married man with six children. The oldest is a boy of 13, and he had no schooling at all until 12 months ago. The school is 4½ miles distant. I have a five-roomed sundried brick house. I did the labour myself, and the total cost was £200, allowing for my own tucker. I was told by the department that the house is of no value, and they granted me £100, but they held that back for the nine months and deducted two lots of interest from it. Besides that I had about 200 acres burnt down, £100 worth of work done, and 3½ miles of fencing done by myself that cost me £30. My