Part 9

Page 664
image 29 of 100

This transcription is complete

JOHN BANBURY PLAMER, Grazier, Cranbrook, Sworn and examined:

9805. To Mr CLARKSON: I have been here four years. I had previous experience in England. I hold nearly 2,000 acres: it is mostly freehold. Probably the bulk of it is first class. I use it as a grazing proposition. I have 400 acres cleared. I do not find fallow of much benefit except for nearly feed. Oats do better than wheat. There is a little bit of prickly poison on my land. The carrying capacity of the land here is about a sheep to three acres.

9806. To Mr. PAYNTER: I have received no assistance from the experts or officials of the Agricultural Department. I think the present land laws might be improved. There should be no rent to pay for the first five years. I see no fault in the price of the land, but the conditions are not encouraging to young fellows.

9807. To Mr. VENN: There is not much cultivation of the land about here. It is a grazing district. Romney Marsh sheep do the best. I have no trouble in getting rid of the few rams I breed. We do not cater much for the fat lamb trade. Freezing works in Albany would encourage the settler in this respect. Rape does well here, but I think that oats do still better. Oats are good to wean lambs on. Oats give better value than other fodder crops. I have had no experience of barley. It does well on a few little sandy plots, which probably are well manured. I am trying to breed a stud flock. I have only about 100 Romney ewes and 250 crossbreds. We have only a couple of cows and they make about 1 lb. of butter each per day. They are on very good feed. I have put in a few patches of subterranean clover. It seems to be doing very well. Lucerne did well for about two years, but silvergrass and other stuff has smothered it now.

9808. To Mr. CLARKSON: I am satisfied with my prospects here, but I would not like to take up virgin country in this district. Quite a few of the people from my part in England are out here 25 miles away on the Frankland River and the Gordon River. They were led to expect a railway, but there are no signs of it yet. I do not think much of the scheme of making small dairy farms in heavily timbered country. Who is going to do the clearing work?

9809. By Mr. CLARKSON: Can you suggest anything the State should do for the betterment of the agricultural industry and the encouragement of land settlement?— Only in respect to improving the conditions under which land could be taken up. To my mind the chief thing is the five years' exemption from rent. Also I think the Government might do a little improvement for the settler before he takes up the land. I think the State would be justified in subsidising co-operative effort for the establishment of butter and bacon factories. Railway freights are fairly satisfactory, though it comes pretty expensive bringing anything from Perth. I have been four times to the Eastern States. Some of the land here is just as good as some of it there, but I have seen better land at Orange, New South Wales, than any I have seen here. I am not satisfied with the wool appraisement. This year my Merino wool brought 1s. 7d. and my Romney 1s. 2½d. Two years ago the Merino brought 1s. 2½d., and the Romney ago the Merino 1s. 2d. I cannot think that the Merino wool in the Eastern States is worth 10d. more than the Merino wool here.

(The witness retired.)

ALEXANDER McLaren MOIR, Cranbrook, sworn and examined:

9810. To Mr. CLARKSON: I have been here since 1870. I had experience on land in South Australia before coming here. I hold 960 acres I have been working the land in different places for the last 47 years. First at Nornalup Inlet then on the Frankland River, 60 miles from the coast. I used to take cattle across on the coast country in those days. We went down there in December, 1870, with 38 head of cattle; then we took another 30 down in February. Those cattle did well till June, when they became coasty and five or six of them died. We shifted them to the karri country, but they would not eat the karri grass. We had to put them back on the coast, where they died rapidly. We drove the remainder up here on the river. The horses got the chip-chip on the legs right up to and above the knees. We cured them with emu oil. At the top of the hoof they seemed to make another fresh hoof and about two months afterwards they were all right. This is a good district for cattle, horses, and sheep. The carrying capacity of the general run of the country in its natural state is about eight acres to the sheep for the full twelve months. There is very little poison in this locality. In the Nornalup country the soil is capable of growing anything in the way of potatoes, vegetables, and even wheat. We cleared five acres there and the wheat was as good as I have seen in any part of Western Australia. Some of it was five feet high, although lying down 18 inches. I would not call it a wheat growing district, because the clearing would be too