VICTOR LESLIE BODE, Manager National Bank, Wickepin, sworn and examined :

8404. By the CHAIRMAN : How long have you been in the district?—Six months in Wickepin. I was previously at Tammin for two and a half years. The bank has practically no No. 2 accounts. The 1914 drought was not felt so much here. The bank's valuation of properties of properties within five miles of this town is £3 per acre. The settlers are a good class and are thrifty and careful. Not many of them are in trouble. I have written various suggestions to my head office, and one of them was that the settlers should relieved of their fencing in favour of doing all clearing. A man must have 1,000 acres to make a living. With regard to bulk handling, in England the railway companies rent bags to the farmer, big bags with a loop attached. There is no sewing about them. When they reach the coast they are put in bulk into the ship's hold., and I think the Government here might well adopt the same principle.

                                                                                          (The witness retired.) 

The Commission adjourned.

TUESDAY, 20th FEBRUARY, 1917. (At Lake Grace.) Present J. O. Giles, Esq., Chairman. H. H. Paynter., F. E. VENN, Esq. PATRICK JAMES McMAHON, Farmer, Lake Grace, sworn and examined :

8405. By the CHAIRMAN : How long have you been in this district?—Since 1908. I was brought up on a farm. I hold 2,700 acres, 1,000 first class and the balance grazing country. The price ranges from 6s. 3d. to 16s. 6d., the average being about 10s. I am three miles from the railway; 1,100 acres are fenced, 500 acres cleared. I have four dams 1,500 yards, and two of 800 yards capacity. The two big ones are 12 feet 6inches deep, and they give a permanent supply. I am a married man with two children too young to attend school, which is six miles away in Merrilup. I have a two roomed house made of sundried bricks, bush stables and shed, a set of implements, eight working horses, four mares, eight youngsters, two cows, six pigs. When I came here I had practically no capital, and borrowed £800 from the Agricultural Bank, and owe about £400 to other creditors. I have been contracting and dam sinking to keep things going on the land. I have 360 acres of crop averaging six bushels. The low average is due to the dry September last year, it was on fallow land. In addition to that I cut 60 tons of hay.

8406. Have Mr Sutton, or Mr Connor, or Mr Moody visited this district or shown you any modern methods in connection with farming?—I have never seen any of them out here. The nearest doctor is at Wickepin.

8407. By Mr PAYNTER : How many acres are fallowed?—Two hundred. I plough four inches and cultivate it once before seeding; ploughing in early spring, about September. I had late wheats. I am farming also Merrilup as well as Lake Grace. These two places are different in regard to seed. I use Lott's there, and without fallow I got five bags, sowing 45 lbs. of seed to the acre. I pickle but do not grade my wheat. At Lake Grace my crop had grubs; here I supply 50lbs. of super., and at Merrilup, 90lbs. of super. to the acre. I have a five furrow disc plough. stump jump plough and an eight furrow disc plough. With the former I use six horses and do six acres a day. I have a 12 tyne Massey Harris cultivator, which does 14 acres; a 15 disc drill, which does 14 acres. I use a sunshine harvester, a6ft. comb, which does seven acres. To put in and take off a crop costs 30s. Larger implements and teams would answer if I was farming on a large scale, but not otherwise. The soil depth is very great. Clearing costs 25s. an acre. Root picking is dearer than in most other districts, and is worth 4s. 6d. I know nothing about bulk handling beyond what I have read; but no doubt the system will work out here slowly from the populated centres, and reach here sometimes in the future. Vegetables do well here, but fruit trees have not been a success. Pigs are useful to reduce the tucker bill and so are poultry. I employ labour at harvest time and pay £2 a week and keep, and the labour is satisfactory. The settler here should have 2,000 acres at least, and to warrant expenditure in plant and horses, a man should have 600 acres cleared, and ought to be able to handle 350 acres himself.

8408. By Mr VENN : Are rabbits plentiful here about?- Yes; over 500 were counted dead the other