should revert to the pound for pound subsidy. It is essential that we should have good roads. Another thing: I think that we should be able to obtain telephone communication with the Railway Department at Donnybrook.

10730. Mr. VENN: The Railway Department has been approached in this matter, and their objection is that the indiscriminate use of railway telephones is likely to endanger the working railways. They are prepared, however, to concede that if someone in a responsible position takes charge of the telephone they will consider applications in each instance.

10731. To Mr. VENN: I consider that settlers should be able to ring up the post office and be connected with the Railway Department.

10732. Are there any particular disabilities under which you are labouring?—Except for the bad roads, farmers have very little to complain of here, and as soon as the Government revert to the subsidy the better it will be for the district. We get £400 to maintain 50 miles of roads.

10733. By Mr. PAYNTER: Are there any large properties that could be resumed in this district?—There are some properties that people have not sufficient money to develop, but there are no big properties here that are not being worked.

10734. Is there any poison in the district?—Very little; none that gives farmers any trouble. I should like to refer to the surveys carried out for repatriation. No soldier should be placed on anything less than 20 or 30 acres of good land which development has been carried out. The Government should buy improved places and cut them up into small holdings. Then soldiers would be able to co-operate in running their properties.

(The witness retired.) _______________

JAMES FORREST BEVERLEY FOWLOER, Preston Park, Preston, sworn and examined:

10735. To Mr. PAYNTER: I have been settled about 40 years in this district. I hold 1,460 acres. of which 820 acres is free hold, and in addition I have 14,000 acres of pastoral lease. It runs from a few chains from the railway, while some of it averages about a mile from the line. I have all the private property and conditional purchase fenced, and about 3,000 acres of the pastoral lease also. The Government notified me that they were going to take up most of my pastoral lease and cut it up for soldiers, but they have given up the idea. I have about 500 acres cleared and partly cleared. I have ploughed 200 acres of this. I go in for grazing principally. I have a small orchard, but I do not place any value on this. The carrying capacity of my property is about 1,000 sheep, and in addition I carry 12 head of cattle. I inherited this property from my father. It was very much encumbered then, but I have done well since. To make a success in this district a man must stick to his business and try his best to make 21s. for every pound. Of the men settler on this river—which is one of the best places in the South-West—not many have their heads above water. They are loafing on the land, and there are a good many of them whose places now do not belong to them. I have a property in the wheat belt also, and the same thing applies there.

10736. By Mr VENN: Do you consider that with a capital of £500, a man would do better to invest it here or in the wheat belt?—If I were a younger man with £500, I would not stop here five minutes. To work this land it is killing. I have worked myself into ill-health. I have strained myself to pieces in this big timber country. If I had started on my country in its natural state, I could not have cleared it for £40 per acre. Now, of course, I have as good a property as anyone in the South-West. In the wheat belt a man has to rough it, but at the same time there is a lot of work done there with horses and machinery, and if I went to the wheat belt with £500, I could do more with it than I can do here with £3,000. There are many men in the wheat belt who are not fit to go on the land. Some of them turn out well, but a lot of Government money is being spent on development which cannot be found in a few year's time. The method of supervision in the wheat belt now is good. An inspector comes round every few days, and the payments for improvements done is good. Another thing I might draw attention to is that I hope and trust that the Government will exercise more care. It seems to me that the Government wastes a lot of money in surveying so much of this poor country which is no good at all, when there are millions of acres in the wheat country where a man with £500 could do better than we can on £3,000. In regard to this pastoral country of mine, I told Mr. Brockman that this country was not much good to me, and I also told him that you could take 50,000 acres, and by picking out an acre there and an acre there or five acres here and there on the 50,000 acres, you could not get 500 acres that was any good. Mr. Brockman considered that he could find 5,000 acres. I suggested that he should go with me and show me. A Parliamentary party came round and we had a meeting. We told these gentlemen that we did not want to see the Government wasting money or the soldiers started on a proposition that was no good. The men have fought with us, and the department has every right to do the best they can for them. We suggested going out and showing these gentlemen the whole position. Since, I met one of them in Perth, and he has told me that the proposition has fallen through. Sending the surveyors out was a waste of money. There are local men who could classify this land in five-minutes. I consider we have one of the best States of the whole lot badly governed. The country has been ruined through inexperienced men. Members of Parliament come round and lecture in order to catch a vote. They show what money we are sending out of the State for produce that we can produce. I could produce, for instance, as much milk for the size of my place as anymore, but dairying does not pay me. The price of wool and sheep makes it more profitable. Five years ago I put in two acres of potatoes, and got 18 tons off the two acres. I kept them for three months and sold them for £3 10s. a ton. It was only a fluke that I got that for them I gave up this land to grass. I find I can buy them cheaper than I can grow them. Labour is too dear. These members of Parliament know nothing of the practical side of the industry. As long as sheep are so profitable it is not likely that a man will go into these other industries which will occasion hard labour and risk. A lot of the land, no matter how poor, can be improved by grassing it to carry a great number