JOHN VAUX, Wigborough, Ongerup (on behalf of his wife, son, and himself), Sworn and examined:

9301. To Mr PAYNTER: I am satisfied with the land here, but the poison is a great difficulty. I have been four years on the land in this district. I had farming experience in England all my life. I gained experience with other farmers before taking up this country. I have 900 acres and my son has 875 acres, and 100 acres in my wife's name. Half of this country is first class and the balance mallee-third class. I am ten miles from the railway. I pay 12s, 6d., 11s. 6d., and 10s. I have applied for a reduction on account of poison. I have 1,060 acres cleared. My water supply is from dams 1,100 yards nine feet deep. These are permanent.

I am a married man with two married sons. I have no stables, But my other buildings are suitable. I have practically a full farming equipment— 14 working horses, two cows and a calf, and three pigs, I started with £800 capital. I owe the agricultural Bank £800. I was on the Industries Assistance board, but paid them off, though owe them for super this year. My other liabilities are about £200. I have 700 acres in this year 450 acres are fallow. I plough five inches, fallow, and work it up with a disc plough as soon as any weeds come up. I consider it best to plough five inches deep and cultivate in September. Next I rake this and plough it back with a disc-cultivating plough about three weeks before seeding, 2½ inches deep. We got an average of 16 bushels from this. I sow 45lbs to 50lbs of super and 60lbs of seed. The best wheats are Turvey, Lott's and Federation. The average yield without the drought year was 7½ bushels. The best average during the last two years was 9½ bushels over 500 acres.

I think a man should have at least 1,000 acres. He should have 600 acres cleared before commencing to crop. One man should be able to do 300 acres per annum. I think the land laws should provide for rent free for the first five years. I have 400 acres of mallee country cleared, and got ten bushels off it. The Ongerup country does not grow good grass. There is no natural grass. The poison is keeping us back. We cannot keep any stock until it is cleared, and it is an expensive job. My son and I went over some self-sown crop after putting a fence round it, picked out all the poison and bagged it, and now it is smothered with poison again. I lost two good horses with the poison after all the trouble we took. Our roads are very bad, and the trains are very irregular in this district. I consider, nevertheless, there are good prospects in this district. Bulk handling would be a benefit. My son had experience with it in Canada and considered it a first class proposition. Freights are heavy by rail. It cost me £9 18s. to send my harvester to Katanning and back. I was appointed by the people in my locality to make these representations to you on their behalf as well as my own.

(The witness retired.)

JOHN LEE, farmer, Ongerup, sworn and examined:

9302. to Mr PAYNTER: I have been six years in this district. I had 20 years' experience in Victoria farming. I have 981 acres; none of it is first class in my opinion; it is second class with a good deal of it no use. I paid 12s. 6d an acre all round. I have applied for a reduction. I am 2¾ miles from a railway. I have about 400 acres fenced and subdivided and 400 acres cleared. My water water supply is one 900-yard dam nine feet deep. It has never been dry, but I consider it risky.

I am married and have four children; two are over school age and two are attending school. I have an iron and hessian house, iron roof. I have a stable and a shed for my machinery. I have not a full working plant. I need some more horses and a plough and a chaffcutter. I have nine working horses, six foals and a saddle horse, three pigs and five cattle. I started with no capital, in fact I was in debt. I owe the Agricultural Bank £550, the Industries Assistance Board £202, but I have wheat against this, and I think only owe them about £40. Other liabilities amount to £700. I am putting in 300 acres, 110 of which is fallow. I sow 60lbs. of super; I tried 90lbs., but did not get any better results.

I have been seeding 50lbs. for wheat. Marshall's No. 3 serves me well. I started with Lott's. It was all right for the first year, but it was not too good afterwards. Federation is good at Gnowangerup, but I tried it here and it took the rust. The best yield I had was 17 bushels, in 1913. I do no consider wheat growing will pay without stock, and we cannot carry stock on account of the poison. I think the Government should provide us with some land in this neighbourhood free of poison on which to turn our stock. Twenty miles away there is a good Crown grant which would serve the purpose.

9303. To Mr VENN: In regards to the mallee country, it is good, but certainly not first class land. It is hard to cultivate and is infested with poison.

9304. To Mr PAYNTER: I consider I should need to get 12 bushels to make both ends meet, and if on fallow land 14 bushels would be required. If I could keep some sheep I could keep the weeds down, but I am afraid the poison would not permit me to do so.

(The witness retired.)

HUGH FRANCIS RODGERS, Inspector Industries Assistance Board and Agricultural Bank, Ongerup, sworn and examined:

9305. To Mr PAYNTER: I consider there are a number of settlers in this district unsuited to the land. A number of complaints have been received from those on the block in North Ongerup. My opinion of that country is, with the expectation of two blocks, it is no good. The Needilup settlers are on good country, but their difficulty is transport. They are from 20 miles from the siding. They are a good class of settler up there and will make good. In regard to Ongerup it is the blocks they are on more than the men, though in some instances the men are unsuitable. I consider in some parts the country is salty. Settlers are keeping up their obligations in some instances, and in some cases are not. I try to keep them up to the mark.

If the 9s per day were stopped a number of them would have to go off the land. I recommend the department to remove those whom I think will not make good. There is not sufficient area of grazing land as recommended by Mr Lee to accommodate the stock in this district when it is not being used. The poison seems to be the trouble here. It increases their costs and they cannot carry stock. This season we have had remarkable feed, and if fencing were possible they