FREDERICK JAMES CONGREVE, Stretton Park, Stretton, sworn and examined:

8331. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in this district?-- Since 1908. I was born in Victoria and brought up at Gawler. Afterwards I was superintendent of carriage on the South African railways. I hold 3,500 acres; 2,000 of which is first class and the balance fair grazing country. The price is 17s. down to 6s. 3d., but it averages about 10s., and in one mile from the railway. There is a fair amount of fencing done and 800 acres cleared. I have a dam 10 feet deep of 1,000 yards capacity, which has been permanent so far, but I could get down deeper if necessary. I am a married man and have two children attending school. I have a two-roomed iron house, a set of implements, six working horses, and a cow. I had £300 capital, and have an overdraft on the Union Bank of £3,000. When Mr. Bath came into power he upset the value of my security. I was going to have a 500-acre crop on fallowed land, and I was lambing 1,000 ewes, but the bank said, in view of Mr. Bath's announcement, that the security was not there. I wanted another £200 for the crop and ewes. They asked me to arrange matters elsewhere, and I had to sell all my improvements to pay them off. Conditional Purchase security is no good, owing to the way it has been knocked about by the late Government. The Government asked too much when they give land, and you have to provide the capital. I am now on the board. I borrowed £700 from the Agricultural Bank and I owe the Industries Assistance Board about £1,000; £2,500 would cover all my liabilities. I have 237 acres of crop going eight bushels. The late return is due to the shortage of labour. I was worn out from the treatment of the board last year. I was told they were not there to make business arrangements, but to keep men on the land. They took the property over. I saw Mr. W.D. Johnson, and asked for the right to have the land after the war. Eventually I came out and took off the crop. The board afterwards asked me if I would like to put in a crop. They supplied manure, and at the end of June they said I could have labour to work it. Then I decided to do what I could myself. I put some rough fallow in and the other as well as I could, but of course it was not put in properly.

8332. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much was fallowed?-- One hundred and thirty acres. At the present time the security is worthless. It has been so knocked about by different regulations. I got money from Union Bank, and just got through when Bath's regulation knocked out the whole of my security. The Government themselves were raising money then, and that hampered me a lot. The men who were clearing the land for me slowed down when they found I was, through my own energies, clearing cheapily. I contracted with a gang of men to work on wages at 12s. 6d., but they knocked off the next day as they wanted the full value of the clearing. I want the security to be improved. I want the freehold. Land cleared and worked will be more value to the Government than the rents they charge on the unimproved land. They can tax unimproved land, and take out their rents in taxation and give the freehold. I have been on the land 10 years, and if I did not pay my rent I have to go out, except at the will of the Minister for Lands. The Government should see about the introducing labour, and population should be introduced, and the value of the security restored. After the bank closed on me I advised Dalgety & Co., and they rushed my sheep into the market at Narrogin. They lost a lot through poison. A court case followed which cost me money. While my lawyer was drawing up a mortgage on fixed deposit terms in one of the associated banks, the Government started borrowing 12 millions, and the business fell through. Afterwards I went on to the board. I had a small second mortgage on one of the blocks which I raised to fight Dalgety & Co. Although I have had £1,000 from the board, I did not get £500 of value as the rent was deducted. That £1,000 I have already paid in land rents and freights. I have taken nothing out of the land, but I have put 10 years of my life into it, but then Bath knocked out all speculation in land. Housing accommodation should be very much better, and the settlers, if they make and erect bats, should be supplied with iron by the Government. All Government servants are pessimistic. If you go to Mr. Paterson he will tell you that acres are an incumbrance, and that they are not security, and they are crying stinking fish constantly. The officials, and through them the public, get up all the points against farming. I have seen officials come on to the place, and when they have gone away I have seen Mrs. Congreve in tears, and she would ask, "Will we ever make a do of it?" To have these people talk like that when you are doing a battle is very hard, and at the same time it is cutting into the value of their capital. We heard a cry about the wodgil country, and the Commission said it was useless. That had been published, but there is no publishing anything that is good. A man the other day went to Perth and said that he was planting vegetables and fruit trees, and that he procured a wonderful crop of fruit off wodgil. All that is published.

8333. By Mr. VENN: That was Mr. Hutchinson from Tammin, and he misled the Minister, because the land on which the fruit was grown was sandplain and not wodgil?-- The land here is good, and if it is not worth what we are charged for it we should get off it. The Government would get more by way of revenue if they gave the freehold instead of charging rent year after year. What we are suffering from is the Bath blight and the Johnson antidote. (The witness retired.) _________________

THOMAS SCOTT LISTER, Farmer, Yealering, sworn and examined:

8334. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been here?-- I came to this district in 1909, and had no previous experience, except when a boy, of farming. I hold 850 acres, three-quarters of which is first class, price 10s. It is three miles from the railway, and is all fenced; 305 acres are cleared, 810 acres fenced, and I have a dam of 392 yards capacity. I am a married man with no children. I have a slab house, no stables, no shed, no implements, no horses. I have been out working for a living. I had £300 capital when I came here, and borrowed £400 from the Agricultural Bank, but nothing from the Industries Assistance Board. To other creditors I owe about £132.

8335. What is the reason the farm is out of production?-- I lost my horses, and then my wife got ill. The crop was poor. I had heavy medical expenses. I put in two crops altogether. I put in 200 acres for Squeaker Thomson at the rabbit fence, and I put 140 on my own place; afterwards I got 170 bags. My two crops were bad ones. My misfortunes