On the question of bulk handling we could not feel certain in 1917 that it would sufficiently dispense with the use of bags to effect any economy in handling grain, while, at the same time we recognised its efficiency in all other respects. Since then the position impels a partial installation of bulk storage. Subsequent development can be extended as experience warrants.

 The investigations of the South-West disclosed two main features:— 
    (1.) The imperative need of a better fast transport and delivery service for perishable products as the first and vital condition precedent to the development of all the main industries. 
    (2.) The wonderful improvement  of the country by drainage (which we observed both in this State and in the other States), the ineffective and half-hearted drainage operations now in operation, and the utter lack of realisation by the State of the overmastering importance of drainage as the greatest of all steps towards progress. 

 We found that the fruit industry had been fortunate in dealing very satisfactorily with all the orchard pests which have yet been encountered, and we place upon record the admirable service which had been rendered in this connection by the energy and enthusiasm of Mr G. W. Wickens, backed by the Government Entomologist. All the expert evidence at our command anticipates a bright future for the industry, for which our climate appears to be particularly well adapted. Our soils vary so much that great care must be taken to plant only in the right situations, but we believe that we have a very considerable area of the best soils to draw upon as the country opens out. 

 Although the forestry question may not, strictly speaking, come within the range of our investigation, it is so intimately associated with the question of future settlement that we have felt it necessary to inquire fairly fully into the main principles which affect it jointly with agriculture. We have as a result concluded that the efforts of the Forestry Department to conserve our hardwood forests are sound and justified, and that its policy of conservative lumbering must affect the railway and agricultural policy of the remote South-West. A feature of the investigation was that some of the sandy coastal country which we consider valueless has a future in the growth of softwoods. Mr Lane-Poole, the Conservator of Forests, holds these apparently worthless lands will ultimately produce all the softwoods required for the State. 

 Dairying, for which the South-West is particularly well adapted, is expanding under the stimulus of very high prices for cream and butter, and the necessary factories are already provided. Dairying is grain-mixed farming. The Government undertaking to assist co-operative butter factories for the Grain Belt has had the effect of discouraging private enterprise from enlarging its investment in this direction while, at the same time, the supplies of cream reaching the only factory in Perth are not very encouraging. We have recommended as the greatest assistance that can be given to dairying-and this applies to all districts-the carriage of cream over all the railways at gallon rates to factories to build up the infant industry, and, by delivering the cream in the best condition, to ensure the highest price to the grower and the highest grade butter for the consumer. 

 The railway question as it affects the producer has been everywhere brought before us, and we can only say that, subject to the limitations imposed by political control the Railway officials are making every effort to meet the demands made upon the service under very trying conditions. The principal trouble is the incidence of the minimum rate charges; with respect to which we suggest that, to remove the multitudinous misunderstandings which exist, the farmers representatives should publish a pamphlet setting forth the position and showing the remedy which can be effected by co-operation or otherwise. The question of fast transport of perishables has already been dealt with, and with regard to the smaller and local matters which crop up, our conclusion is that regular conference, as between the Department and the growers official representatives, will do much to effect the successive alterations which changing conditions demand. 

 It seems evident that the accommodation at Perth Railway Station is now so over-taxed that temporary extensions to handle the perishable trade are an instant and economic necessity. 

 We cannot find that any of our producing interests, except sheep breeding, are distinctly profitable to our growers. All the other main rural activities exhibit a common feature in the abundance of misdirected enthusiasm in a practical field of effort. Our wheat growers, fruit growers, and potato growers have all been learning their conditions by experience, with the result that to-day a process of all-round reconstruction is going on. Much money and time have been lost in the process and heavy liabilities have been incurred; but the farmer to-day occupies a sounder position in consequence. We feel convinced that, as better methods are employed, our industries are in themselves sound and will gradually establish themselves on secure and remunerative foundations. 

 The fundamental conditions under which our agriculture, in common with that of all other countries, will expand, are the provision of cheap agricultural credit, with cheap land and suitable tenure. The position in Western Australia is that the land is cheap, but the tenure is frequently unsuitable and the farmers mortgage money is dear and uncertain, in that it may be, and often is, called up. We hold that it is a legitimate function of the Agricultural Bank to provide mortgage money on long terms at the rates upon which the State secures its funds, plus the cost of handling the money. 

 If the State will do this and provide the public utilities—organisation and direction, transport, markets, cold storage, and the like-then agriculture, as a general proposition, will establish a self reliant population upon the soil. This, in brief, is the elemental essential—that the State limits its assistance to the main and imperative functions which it is called upon to fulfil, and that the individual otherwise develops the initiative and self reliance required to work out his own salvation.