JAMES PHEOBE, Lindale Farm, Dorakin, sworn and examined:

8394. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been here? - Since 1910. I was brought up on a farm in New South Wales, and afterwards followed mining until I came here. I have 731 acres of first class land. The price is 14s., and the land is 12 miles distant from the railway. I have 500 acres enclosed with three wires and netting and subdivided into four paddocks. I have 405 acres cleared and 80 acres ready for burning. I have a 500-yard dam, and there is a 4,000-yard dam belonging to the Government just outside my fence. I am a married man with two children, and the school is a quarter of a mile away. I have a four-roomed iron house, bush stables and sheds, a set of implements, nine working horses, seven other horses, eight pigs. I came here with £700 capital and borrowed £600 from the Agricultural Bank, and £300 from the Industries Assistance Board. I have 325 acres in crop averaging 9¼ bushels, as well as 43 tons of hay.

8395. By Mr PAYNTER: How much of that is fallow? - I have not got enough land cleared for fallow and to feed my stock. When I started I scratched it in but I only got 24 bags of wheat from 25 acres. Afterwards I fallowed it properly and it returned six bags. I have to plough in summer. Hoskin's Baroota Wonder has been my best seed and Federation next, while Lott's came third. I sow a bushel of seed to the acre and pickle it. I had a little smut this year. I have not calculated what it costs to put in and take it off. My highest average yield was 12 bushels in 1913. The tariff is the great drawback to this district. My land costs not less than 25s. an acre cleared. I believe in bulk handling, but have never heard very much about it. I have no time to grow fruit or vegetables. Pigs are profitable. A man should have 1,500 to 2,000 acres to make a living, and he should have 600 acres cleared before purchasing horses and implements. Each year he ought to be able to crop 300 acres. I would like to say that this area was surveyed in too small an acreage. It would have been better to survey it in 1,000-acre blocks as this would save the farmers fees. Where a man is surrounded by neighbours or by adjoining properties which are not being worked, and applies for forfeiture of one of them, the Government should not inform the owners that complaint has been made, and the man who applied for the forfeiture should have a chance of procuring the land. With regard to the Industries Assistance Board, last year I got my wheat on the 29th January. The Board did not meet my liabilities for eight months' interest. When I complained, the Board wrote and told me to pay it out of my feed money. I think in any case they should be more prompt in attending to correspondence. There is a block of 1,000 acres adjoining me and nothing has been done on it for three years. It is held in the names of Moysey and Sharp. Sharp fell in the war, but Moysey should go on with improvements, or give someone else a chance of doing so. The railways will not pay so long as blocks are left unoccupied and held by speculators. I want £100 to clear a very thick belt of land, in fact, the thickest belt in the district. (The witness retired.)

A Deputation, consisting of Mrs. BURNS, Mrs. MABEL VERNON WHITE, of Dorikin, and Mrs. R.S. SPARK, waited on the Commissioners.

8396. Mrs. WHITE said: We want a doctor and a nurse for the Wickepin district. We must have a nurse. The present subsidy is £50 a year. The nurse should not be paid less than £100 a year, with a horse and sulky and house free. It could not be done for less. Our Progress Association cannot guarantee anything. There is no nurse available in the district.

8397. Mrs SPARK said that she would be prepared to undertake the work of nurse. Quite recently a woman was laid up suddenly, and I do not know what would have happened to her if I had not been there.

8398. Mrs WHITE: I know an instance of a woman who was ill and had eight children in the room. Then as she left to go to the township her child was born in the cart after travelling 45 miles. It was raining at the time, and we had to strike matches to see what we were doing. The Housing generally in this district consists of logs and bags and earth floors. My own children have never been free from colds on account of the draughtiness of the house.

8399. Mrs BURNS said that the settlers should be encouraged to build a good bat house, which would be far better than hessian, and could be added to at any time.

8400. Mrs WHITE: We live in a bough shed, and we have buckets hung around in order to catch the water. All the family have been ill with pneumonia, and at the present time my husband is ill in the hospital suffering from kidney complaint. We would be prepared to put up bats if the Government would give us the iron. I would make the bats myself. The settler could start with two rooms, and could add from time to time. We also require rain-water tanks.

8401. Mrs SPARK said: I have been here for seven years. We have never had a crop yet. We live in a two-roomed bag house. It is called the "red pimple."

8402. Mrs BURNS said that when on one occasion she was acting as a nurse to a farmer's wife she was reported to the Central Board of Health for not doing the family washing. Nevertheless, she looks after the young children, washed them, and put them to bed, and in addition to that made the bread. Nevertheless, she was reported to the authorities.

8403. Mrs WHITE said that she had one nurse stay with her, and she had to sleep on wheat bags stretched on two sacks, and stuffed with cockey chaff for a mattress. The next morning she complained of the fleas.

(The deputation retired.)