on account of the excessive water. Any of the river country is good, of course, but it is all taken up. It is held by a few people, although they are willing to sell at any time. All of the river bank land is suitable for irrigation, although irrigation on the river is hardly necessary. Couch, unfortunately, beats lucerne as often as it is planted. If the land is drained and cultivated properly you do not want irrigation.

11332. To Mr. VENN: Where do you dispose of your fruit?—Simper of Fremantle takes most of it and all of his shipping clients are anxious to get my fruit.

                                                                                                (The witness retired.)

                                                                                                       —————

KINGSLEY OGILVIE FAIRBRIDGE, Head Master, Fairbridge Farm School, Pinjarra, sworn and examined:

11333. By the CHAIRMAN: The Commission is anxious to learn some details of the establishment which you control, and rather than question you, I should be glad if you make a statement?—There are, normally, in England 200,000 orphan and destitute children, and these are brought up in workhouses and orphanages and similar institutions. My theory is that it is bad that these children should be allowed to grow up in England, where there is little demand afterwards for their services, and furthermore, unfortunately, a stigma attaches to them for the reason that they have been brought up at the expense of the ratepayer. This is not the case in the colonies where a man is accepted for what he is worth rather than on account of such considerations. I am a colonial myself, and I conceived an idea that it would be useful national work to try and get these children from the orphanages and workhouses and emigrate them to the colonies, and train them on a farm school. I should like to explain, my farm is not a model one, nor is it intended as such. The idea is simply that the children shall grow up and learn the initiative in farming matters, and this they can get no opportunity of doing in England. The cheapest way is to bring them up, of course, as they do in England, but this is not the best way. I have made provision so that when the farm school is in complete running order they will have their workshops on the one side of the school, playing fields and the school houses and cottages on the other, while on the place in between they have various means for physical and other development. When my 35 boys came out five years ago, there were only two of them who could do anything useful; one could black boots and another could scrub tables. They were between the ages of seven and 14, and my experience goes to show that the best ages to obtain children for the class of training we have in view is from eight to 10 years. After being on this farm for five years, these boys have been taught swimming, every one of them can play football and cricket; they all know something about gardening, and I have given them their own plots, in which they take considerable interest; they can all harness a horse, and all have been taught milking, and all have had some little experience in cropping, fruit picking, packing, and pruning. In fact, they are good useful chaps. Eight or nine boys have left the institution, and have earned golden comments from men with whom they are employed. They are very much attached to the farm school, and several spend their Christmas holidays here, while others keep up correspondence with me. The boys on the farm attend school for 5¼ hours each day. We have our own school building, and a Government teacher. Four afternoons of the week after school, they have 2¼ hours with me or my assistant. This is the time in which they learn farm work. In the morning they milk the cows, make their own beds, keep their rooms clean and tidy, and wash their own utensils. We have various jobs which they are required to undertake, and on which we change them once a fortnight, so that no boy has one job on the farm for more than two weeks at a time. One boy out of school hours helps in the kitchen, and others wait on the tables, and all are taught to keep the place neat and tidy.

11334. By Mr. VENN: Are there any instances where these boys apparently cannot adapt themselves to the work?—No. There is not a single case where a boy cannot take up farm work. We get numerous inquiries from farmers for our boys. At the present time there are two working at Harvey, one at Keysbrook in an orange orchard, one at Broomehill, one in the army and one in the navy, and another with Mr. Forrest at Bunbury. An arrangement is made with employers that they remit half their wages to the farm school until the boys are 18, when the money is given to them. They usually commence with the farmer at 10s. per week, and as I previously remarked, we have applications for boys from this institution from all portions of the State. They are free to leave the school at 14 years of age, but I advise them to stay until they are 16, and this I consider important.

11335. By Mr. PAYNTER: Have you made arrangements for further boys to come out?—The trouble is money. I am deemed to be the founder of this society, which is known as the Child Immigration Society of Oxford. The society was originated by colonial students at Oxford University. We started with very little money, but as we attained some results, the income went up, and for six months previous to the outbreak of the war, our income from public subscription was £120 per month. We received no State money of any kind. Of course we had no guaranteed income, but for the past two or three years the people have sent us an average of £480 annually. The Western Australian Government since last December has been giving me a capitation of 6s. per week. From July, 1915, they only gave me 4s. per week. Then Mr. Colebatch came down, and after inspecting the farming and seeing what we were doing, he raised the capitation to 6s. Of course this is not enough.

11336. Is the school under Government supervision at all?—The State Children's Department has the right to supervise the school. These officers have paid a visit here from time to time.

11337. By Mr. VENN: Do you consider that the Government should take this work over?—I do not think so, but I consider that anybody that the Government can trust to carry out the work and help immigration suitably, should be subsidised by the Government, although the 6s. which I am receiving is quite inadequate to run my farm school. The English Boards of Guardians should support these schools