their own land clear of the pest, and in addition netting should be supplied to settlers. They are not here yet, but they will come if the Government does not deal with the question promptly. Poisoning is not going to be any good. Fencing is the thing. Netting should be supplied on easy terms. The rabbits are at Kojonup already, which is only 30 miles away.

(the witness retired.)

ALFRED HOW WHITTAKER, Hill and Vale Farm, Kulikup, sworn and examined:

10786. To Mr PAYNTER: I have been 10 years in this district. I had no previous experience in farming. I have 560 acres of land, 160 of which is freehold and the balance conditional purchase. It is two and a-half miles from the railway, all fenced, with the exception of 100 acres. 35 acres have been cleared and 20 acres partly cleared. I have four and a-half acres of orchard, 85 sheep and 30 lambs, two cows, six horses, and four pigs. I started with £70 capital. I do some cropping for hay for my own use.

10787. To Mr VENN: I am one of the selectors on the Dinninup area. I consider I can make a living there, but it has been a hard struggle so far. When I first came down it was two years before I could get any satisfaction from the Agricultural Bank. It was the assistance promised from that source that induced me to take up the land. I was not in a position to stay on the block, and had to go out and get work. When the Agricultural Bank inspector came round, he reported that I was away, and the Bank offered me only £100 to do £200 worth of work. Finally the inspector came back and fixed up the loan, but there was two years' interval between my application and the time I got it. It was on account of this that I had to go out and work. My wife died, and I was left with three small children to look after. That made it very hard. I do not consider that my holding is large enough. There is a poison all over it. It is not heavily infested certainly, but the poison is there.

10788. To Mr PAYNTER: I should like to tell you briefly of my experience , and that of others in the settlement. The clearing of poison is an immense tax on the settler. It will cost on an average from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per acre to clear it in the first place. On the sandy soil it will recur for 20 to 30 years. Some men have left their blocks. One cropped six years in succession, and after that the seedlings came up like a crop. In the Dinninup area the poison is very bad. Then again the land is too high in price. I was paying 10s., 12s., and 15s. for different blocks. I have now had a reduction on 40 acres from 15s. to 7s. 9d. on 20 acres from 12s. to 7s. 9d., and the 10s. block is reduced to 7s. I am not satisfied that this is a fair price now. Generally speaking the land was over priced 50 per cent. in the first place. I went on to this land, and was paying this rent and without exaggeration, there were months on end that I had to bring my wife and children down to less than bare living in order to pay my rent. I wrote and advised the Minister pointing out that the matter of the land rent was a small consideration to the Government as compared with the proceeds that would accrue from the land if the settlers were able to work it. If I could have taken up 1,500 acres instead of 500 in the first place say, at ½d. per acre per annum, I could have fenced the 1,500 acres, and put on sufficient stock to carry on while I was doing improvements. My holding brings me in very little, especially when the price obtained for fruit is considered. The land is really only a grazing proposition. It takes eight acres of the average country to carry a sheep, but when improved it could carry eight sheep where it is only carrying one. There is another matter. I know of one settler who took up 800 acres in the Dinninup estate, which was priced from 12s. to 18s. it was thickly infested with poison. He started with £400 of his own, and borrowed from the Agricultural Bank. He started with 130 sheep four years ago, and he has practically none now. Neither has he killed any. He applied to the Lands Department, and they agreed to extend his terms, but not to reduce the price of the land. Consequently this man is going out to work for others without any chance of improving his own holding. So far as I am concerned if the matters to which I have referred can be given consideration, I feel sure settlers will make good. Settlers only want sympathetic treatment, and the good men will get on. But to be told that the land will be forfeited if the rents are not paid is taking the heart out of them. There are some fine women there who came out from England, and who are suffering fearful hardships that even the Australian women would not stand. The conditions of the land settlement were represented to us in England in such a manner that intending settlers got a false impression of the real state of affairs. I went to the Lands Department to select land, and was told that the Dinninup area was the place for me. I selected the land, and put in an orchard on what I considered first class land, and it appears that no one with a knowledge of orcharding had even been in this district. The Fruit Industries Commissioner came down some years ago, and found there was no suitable land in the district for orchards. The chief inspector of orchards also came down and tested the land in one settler's case, and advised him that he might as well pull the trees out. The same applies to almost all the land in the Dinniniup area. I asked specifically to be put on to land suitable for orcharding. The trees have certainly done well, but the chief inspector considers that die-back will occur, and that the trees will not last more than about 10 years. There are a few small patches that the orchard inspector would give any report on. The department has been very lax in allowing settlers to come on to land which is unsuitable.

(The witness retired.)

The Commission adjourned.