2nd Progress Report - Part 1

image 6 of 99

This transcription is complete

—estry Department to-day, the timber will be reserved. In that case, many years will elapse before more timber railways are required, and without the opportunity of earning timber freight, there will be no justification for the construction of agricultural railways to serve the limited areas of cultivable land.

 In any case, the first step must be to map out the country, to clearly show the delimitation of the forests and of land available for selection. To this end a joint survey by the staffs of the Lands and Forestry Departments is in progress, and when that survey is complete, the larger question can then be decided. Meanwhile, your Commissioners assume that the forests will be reserved, as they undoubtedly should be, and their report is guided throughout by this attitude. 
                                                                                                     THE FUTURE. 

For the further development of the country, the great essentials are:— 1. Labour 2. Drainage 3. Lime 4. Cheap explosives 5. Tree pulling. Labour. —The scarcity of labour is everywhere pronounced and the future of the South-West is wrapped up in the question of hands to bring the land to use. All the able-bodied men likely to return from the war can be utilised by the timber industry alone, leaving nothing over for the other industries. It has been, we learn, impossible for years before the war to let more than a few acres of clearing— say, some four to five—as the timber industry presented more attractive openings to Australians, and there seems no possible supply of labour in sight for the future, without immigration on a large scale. The shortage does not merely mean that the South-West must mark time for a while. It means that the farmers—and they are not lazy men as a class—cannot hold the land already partly cleared without labour, and that, when it is unprocurable, the forest is gradually, but irresistibly, again taking possession.

Drainage.—What may finally be accomplished by drainage on the western plain, and elsewhere, is inconceivable. A familiar example is the small area of drained swamps at Osborne Park, some 600 acres in extent, which is said to produce annually vegetables to the value of £75,000, and potatoes worth £60,000, in addition to supporting a large population, and to contributing with the help of adjacent grazing country, some £70,000 worth of milk to the metropolitan milk supply. Admittedly, this is only rendered possible by the close proximity of the population of Perth, but there are large areas of land all through the country whose productivity can be enormously enhanced by drainage and which are of little or no use till the water is taken off. Undoubtedly, the first necessity of the day is a comprehensive survey of the country from the Moore River to Busselton, as a step towards the reclamation and development of the most suitable areas in order of merit. Individual attempts at drainage under present conditions are merely passing water from one holding to another, to the detriment of the holders on the lower ground, and a policy of main drains to take off this accumulated water, to which the settlers can connect by subsidiary drains is essential. Legislation will probably be required to facilitate the formation of Drainage Boards, responsible to the State for the maintenance and upkeep of the drains and for the collection of rates on the areas benefited.

Lime.—Wherever the land is drained and brought under cultivation, its improvement would be materially assisted by dressings of cheap lime. Indeed, practically no other agency is capable of producing so much result under intelligent application, and it is a reflection on the State's agricultural policy that the many deposits, which have for years been known to exist, in a form available long ere this. The deposits at Lake Clifton and Capel are, we find, in the hands of concessionaires, whose obligations inter alia, are to supply certain quantities of lime to farmers at 10s. to 12s. per ton on rails. In the case of Lake Clifton, the obligation is not insistent till after the declaration of peace. The lime deposits are, therefore, to a certain extent, locked up, and we can only express these opinions at this stage:— (1.) That 10s. to 12s. per ton is too high a price for agricultural lime on trucks, say, Waroona, and in fixing such a price the State has sacrificed the interests of its farmers. (2.) That if the rates fixed are incapable of revision to something like 5s. per ton, the State should make the best of a bad job by arranging with the concessionaires for the early delivery of lime for the benefit of the limited number of settlers whose added railage costs do not prohibit its use. (3.) That every assistance should be offered to open out the other known deposits in the coastal districts by subsidising on a pound for pound basis all attempts to place lime of approved quality on trucks at 5s. per ton.

 From inquiries we have made we are satisfied that in other parts of the world, by the application of mechanical means and power, deposits, such as Lake Clifton, could be pumped out and loaded on to trucks at a cost not exceeding 2s. 6d. per ton.

Cheap Explosives.—The further development of the country is dependent upon clearing, and clearing is largely dependent upon cheap explosives. Various complaints were made of the unduly high price charged by country traders for explosives—up to 70s. per case in some instances. The Commission finds that manufacturers agents distribute gelignite, on a war basis, in small lots at 52s. per case on trucks, Robb's Jetty, to all classes of buyers alike, so that farmers who can wait til the railways can provide a magazine and deliver at country stations can buy on that basis. The manufacturers agents are also prepared to sell to the Government, in large parcels, at 45s. per case, and we suggest that the Department of Agriculture should investigate the question to see if, on that basis, it can provide a country magazine and arrange a local scheme of distribution from a centre like Bridgetown on a still more favourable basis.

Tree Pulling.—The State possesses several tree pulling plants which, though nominally available to—