that I want another plough. I could do this if we could get the money back that we have paid in rent to be devoted to clearing. I have a jarrah house, but it is not lined, and as a result it is very draughty and I have had a child sick in consequence.

8352a. We are all of the opinion that settlers should be decently housed and we will report in favour of better accommodation. We also consider that people with flat land should be specially treated. (The witness retired.) __________________

DAVID STRUTH, Blair Adam, Yealering, sworn and examined :

8353. By the CHAIRMAN : When did you come to this district?- In 1908. I was the first settler here. I had had no previous experience, but my father was a farmer. I was a grocer in Scotland. I hold 964 acres. The land is white and salmon gum mixed with she-oaks, jam, and York gum. The whole of it is heavily timbered, but the country is flat. It joins the railway and is priced at 12s. In some places there are bogs and in summer the land bakes. It is all fenced with sheep proof netting, 350 acres cleared, and I have permanent soaks. I am a married man, but have no children. My house is jarrah; I have bush stables, a shed, suitable farming implements, seven working horses, three cows, two bullocks, 159 sheep and two pigs. I started with £400 capital and I owe the Union Bank £Union Bank £1,200. That is the whole of my liability. I have 200 acres cropped, going nine and a half bushels, 20 acres are under oats and 20 for hay.

8354. By Mr PAYNTER : How many acres are fallowed?- Twenty, but the fallow is always the worst. If we could get it ploughed after the rain comes, we could get the best crop, but the land is too hard. Federation and Comeback do best here. The minimum quantity of land a man in this district should hold is 2,000 acres. It is good stock land. A man should have 300 acres in every year. So far as the land laws are concerned, I have been constantly worried by the Government. If I could get anyone to take the land over, I would go back to Scotland and warn others not to come out here. I had seven acres resumed, but this was afterwards altered to 37 acres. This was resumed for railway purposes. The Railway Department could not possibly use it, and no compensation was given to me for taking it from me. I have not yet settled with them. Further than that, they took two acres that contained a soak. This was resumed by the railway engineer. He told my banker he would hit me through the association. The secretary of the association is a nephew of mine. In the first place, when we came here, the Government gave us 40 acres to run the water into the lake. The water runs from here through Wickepin and they put in a drain to prevent the water going into it. I am referring to the railway people. The dam was not interfering with the railway line, although they say that it did do so. The dam lower down is filled. I was not compensated for the resumption of the land, but I got £2 an acre for the other soak that they took away from me. I have now to seek water elsewhere for my sheep. The soaks are used for the carts coming along the road. Mr Brisbane, Railway Engineer, told my banker at Wickepin that if it had not been for a letter being written by the secretary of the association (my nephew), and published in the papers, that things would have been different for me. The letters were written to the papers about three years ago, and I will have copies of them sent to the Commission at Parliament House.

8355. At this juncture the witness's nephew, secretary of the association, said : The Railway Department were cutting the jam trees down and we told them to go along the road if they wanted to cut trees. I signed a letter to the newspapers concerning the Government, as secretary of the association, in my official capacity.

8356. Witness to chairman : My only chance now is to have sheep.

8357. To Mr VENN : I have 156 ewes and three rams. It requires sheep to keep the land clean. That is the limit of the capacity of my land. If we get the salmon gum cleared, it would be better grass country than what you see around here. (The witness retired.