right up to August or September. After that sometimes I get nine to 12 bushels of oats. Railway freights do not trouble me much, because I do not send away much wheat or oats. My sheep walk away to the markets. The only trouble is the fertiliser. The wool goes to Albany. I got 1s. 9½d. for my fleece wool.

9788. To Mr. PAYNTER: In regard to poison country I think the land laws might be considerably liberalised. Poison land should be available at a nominal price. Under the amending Act I have applied for a reduction in my price but it is being delayed.

9789. To Mr. VENN: I favour dairying as a side line in this district. Cows must be fed. Nobody here has any silos. My few cows pay my store bills all the year round. I sell the butter locally.

9790. To Mr. CLARKSON: I think the State would be justified in subsidising co-operative effort for the establishment of creameries in this district. If we had a butter factory here we would go in for more cows. We do not understand the making of ensilage in this district. Mr. Sutton has never been in this district. Mr. Connor has been here and lectured. We do not gain very much from that sort of thing. It would be better if competent officers were sent out amongst the people to discuss these questions.

9791. By. Mr. CLARKSON: Have you any suggestions to make for the betterment of the industry?—I know of several soldiers who have left their farms with their neighbours to look after the fencing. Those areas are being smothered with poison again, and when the men come back they will have their battles with the poison all over again. They were Agricultural bank clients. We can look after their fences but we cannot look after the poison and the suckers. The chief drawback here is want of capital. For proper development all the lands should be cleared. The plough must be kept going all the time, which requires money. When I came here I had £2,000. I have spent that and borrowed more from the Agricultural bank. I am doing better here than I did in the other States. We never get a drought here. This is a sheep district. The minimum area required here for sheep is 1,500 or 2,000 acres.

(The witness retired.)

ALFRED JOHNSTON, Farmer, Tambellup, sworn and examined:

9792. To Mr. CLARKSON: I have been farming here 13 years. I hold 3,300 acres, of which 210 is cleared. I use it as a sheep proposition. I have a good deal of poison country. Most of the poison is now eradicated. I find oats pay best. I use them to feed the sheep. I feed them down in the early part of the season and strip them afterwards. Later I hand feed them to the ewes in a big feeder.

9793. To Mr. PAYNTER: I do not consider our present land laws calculated to encourage men to take up land. Our land down here has been too highly valued. The fair value of unimproved land is about 6s. 3d. I have been charged 10s. for a good deal of it. I came here with no experience of this country. I tried to grow wheat. It was an absolute failure. It is only since we stocked up and grew oats that we have made any progress whatever. I have had no assistance from the experts or officials of the Agricultural Department. We have had to pay for our experience. The Agricultural Bank practically denied us assistance when we took up the land. Mr. Taylor, the then bank inspector said the land was almost worthless. It was then land guide, Mr. Owen Saggers, who put us on it. I have now between 400 and 500 sheep. I would not like to carry more on our property. Last year we had only 25 per cent. of lambs. This year we had an exceptional one for feed and the lambs are better. I have not applied for any reduction in the prices of our land. When we applied for a grazing area they made us take up 200 acres of first class land with the rest of the block. I am merely trying to make a home, and to that extent I am satisfied with my prospects. I have started now to make a little headway with dairying. Our first advance from the bank was only £100.

9794. By. Mr. CLARKSON: Have you any suggestions to make for the betterment of the industry?—The Government should defer the payment of rents for a certain period so as to allow the new settler to put all this money into the clearing of his land.

(The witness retired.)

JAMES SHARMAN CRAWFORD, Farmer, Tambellup, sworn and examined:

9795. To Mr.CLARKSON : I have been farming here 12 years. I am a surveyor by profession. I hold 2,700 acres, of which 700 is first class. Two-thirds of my land had poison on it. I have not eradicated it altogether yet. Poison costs 5s. an acre to eradicate. The average cost in this district would be about 2s. 6d. per acre. I have 250 acres cleared. I have been running it more as a sheep proposition, but I cannot afford to buy sheep now and I am letting the grass. The average carrying capacity of holdings about here is a sheep to 2½ acres. On a fine patch of country my brother is running nearly a sheep to the acre. Generally speaking, the land laws are satisfactory, but I think poison land should be sold at a nominal rate. The laws are all right, but the administration is all wrong. I do the valuing of the land about here. A patch I valued at 3s. 9d., explaining in a note to the Department that it was because I could not put it any lower, was fixed in the office at Perth at 6s. 3d.

9796. By Mr. CLARKSON: Have you any suggestions to make for the betterment of the industry and encouragement of land settlement?—I think co-operative effect should be used to do away with the middle man. The Government should assist settlers in stocking up. The agricultural Bank Act should be amended to enable the farmer to get approval of a loan by which he could, through his local company, obtain sheep. The local company knows every block of land and would be unlikely to make mistakes. Under my proposal the bank should utilise the services of the Farmers Co-operative Company as agents instead of relying upon men who know nothing whatever about the question. The Government should do something to protect the settlers against exploitation by machinery manufacturers.

(The witness retired.)