Part 8

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has been valued at 15s. The purchaser is buying it on practically 30 years' terms, in fact paying nothing for the land as long as he pays the interest. Do you mean to say that that land is too dear? - In a sense it is.

9203. Do you know it is the cheapest land on earth? - It should be.

9204. Do you want the Government to give you the land for less than nothing, then? - It should be for nothing, for the reason that if you spend intelligently £500 on a location in Bruce Rock and put it up for sale you will not get £500 for it. I think with good management that the land in time will pay to work, but not under present conditions. (The witness retired.) _______________

FREDERICK SLADE BROCKMAN, Surveyor General, sworn and examined:

9205. By the CHAIRMAN: You have a pretty wide acquaintance of the State? - I know a good deal of it.

9206. And you are specially familiar with the agricultural areas? - Fairly familiar, not specially.

9207. And the wheat belt in particular? - I have been through a lot of the wheat belt.

9208. Will you describe the method followed by the department in valuing the land in the agricultural areas and the wheat belt in particular? - I believe you have seen some of the forms we use for valuations. The system we adopt is this: Upon surveying, the land surveyor makes a soil classification and places his estimate upon it. He separates it into three classes of soil, first , second and third, and from the figures he supplies in a column of the three areas, he makes up the valuation which he recommends. This is submitted to the district surveyor, if there is one in the locality dealt with, who make a recommendation as to the price. He is largely guided by the knowledge of the personal equation of the surveyors and inspectors. One invariably prices high, and another prices low, but he takes into consideration the personality of the man dealing with it. He then makes a recommendation as to the price per acre, which is submitted to the Surveyor General, who takes into consideration the personal equation of the district surveyor and the information he may have departmentally with regard to the means of access either actually in construction or contemplated, and he thereon fixes a price which, in the event of the land having been applied for as vacant Crown lands, merely goes to the Under Secretary for Lands, who approves of the price on behalf of the minister. In the case of land that has been reserved for subdivision or any other purposes, these lands are scheduled and sent to Executive Council.

9209. Has there ever been an instance of the prices being fixed by the Surveyor General being exceeded or diminished by the Minister or Under Secretary? - At one time, some few years ago we used a different form, upon which the final arbiter was the Minister, and the Under Secretary came in between the Surveyor General and the Minister, and from what I know it was for the Under Secretary to amend the price fixed by the Surveyor General, and the Minister to again amend. The reason for that was that the Under Secretary thought probably the district surveyor was in the better position to judge, so that if the Survey General amended the prices the Under Secretary perhaps in some cases reverted to the price fixed by the district surveyor; but the present form has been used for three years and I have not known of any cases of prices being amended after leaving the Surveyor General, except one which had gone to the Executive Council. I have a case now where the price I have recommended has been sent back to me by the Minister for revision. It is not often the case. Generally, the Surveyor General is trusted to fix the price. The custom adopted would depend on the amount of confidence reposed in the particular officer.

9210. During our tour of the wheat belt we came across numerous instances of settlers who complained that they had taken up land on the basis of railways marked on the plans. Those railways had not been constructed in some cases for years, and in other cases never constructed at all. The settlers complained bitterly of breach of contract. How did the railways come to be marked on the plans, and what authority was there for marking them?- I read what the Under Secretary for Lands told you about that, as published in the West Australian, as to the authority. We have no definite authority to have those marked on the plan. It is our custom to show all surveys of every description, and we are keen to get that information from the Works Department to show it on our plans, but I do not think it should be construed by the public into a guarantee that the line will be constructed, because we only show those that are proposed. There may be a dozen, and we give them all on the plan.

9211. I suppose you are aware that a number of the men did take the railways as being a practical assurance and acted accordingly? - I think they have done that rather from statements made by Ministers or interviews at social gatherings in the localities, that the intention of the Government was to construct railway lines, rather than the railway lines were shown on the plans. We have not had any survey when a pledge has been given, and it is quite a common thing that Ministers have promised to have surveys made without committing themselves further than that. because it is a sop to the community.

9212. Do we understand that these railways were not marked in the plans as an inducement to settlement, but as information for the public? - That is the intention of our department.

9213. Has any alteration been made in the departmental methods by which railways are not shown on plans until they have been authorised? - They are shown as proposed; I do not think they are shown on our plans as authorised.

9214. Do you not think it would be better, in view of what I have pointed out, that no lines should be shown on plans unless they have been duly authorised? - I think I would go further and say that they should not be shown until they have been constructed, because a line may be authorised in this State for many years, and there is no hope of an early construction to this date. They have been authorised, but the money has not been voted.

9215. The adoption of that procedure will prevent any annoyance being caused to persons in the future, which has been the case with a good body of