— one mile from the railway station. I have a house of three rooms and am a married man with three children. I have 12 acres cleared; the land is all fenced. I have a shed and some pigsties, three cows, two heifers, two horses, a foal and 22 pigs. My brother was on the land two years before I came here. When I started three years ago I have £150 and since then I have put £150 into it. I am getting money from my father in England. I am free of debt. I have spent £150 cash on the land in the past three years. I cannot make a living on the land. I intend to go in for more dairying and consider I shall do better by this than going in for more clearing. I am sure I can make a success of dairying. I consider my block, when i get lucerne established, will carry 12 cows. I can make a living out of six cows of the kind I have now. Three months ago one cow gave me 9s per week in cash after giving us all the milk and butter we required. I bought another cow, a prize taker at the Tambellup Show. The cow from which I was getting 9s per week is still giving me a return of 5s per week and has been milking for 10 months. I find that we cannot get the services of the stud bulls at the State farm. In regard to the disposal of our produce, on the 22nd February I forwarded two bags of potatoes and one bag of beans to Kalgoorlie, which fetched £2 3s 9d. The railage was 4s 6d, cartage 9d, and commission 3s 3d. On £2 3s 1d worth of produce on another occasion the charges came to 9s. On the 1st March i sent two bags of potatoes to Kalgoorlie and they fetched 14s per cwt, the price realised amounting to £1 15s. The railage was 4s 2d, cartage 6d., and commission 2s 9d., total charges 7s. 5d. You will realise, therefore, that marketing our produce on these lines is quite unprofitable. In regard to dairying, and the authorities mismanagement of the bacon factory, I sent six pigs to Albany and six I kept until I could send them to the local bacon factory. I had two of these pigs in the Show on the 3rd February, 1918, as baconers. They were ready for market then and on the 2nd February I had asked the manager to go out and see them. He advised me that he would kill them before the end of February and I went ahead fattening on pollard and milk. I saw him again and he now has a notice up that he cannot kill until the 3rd April. The pigs will then be too big and he will not take them. The freight on these to Perth will not pay me. This bacon factory should be established on proper lines and then it would be a benefit to the district. It will not cost a lot to do this.

(The Witness Retired.)

Deputation representing the Denmark District Settlers' Association waited upon the Commission. There were present Messrs. John Paterson, Stephen Henry Johnson, John Mazzoletti and William Montgomery Manners.

The Chairman suggested that one member, who could be sworn, should be nominated to speak on behalf of the deputation, the others supporting him or protesting should their views not coincide.

William Montgomery Manners, Farmer, Denmark, was therefore sworn and examined:

11570. To the Chairman: There are about 150 settlers in the Denmark Estate. The average size of the blocks is, suburban 12 to 20 acres, and rural up to 100 acres. Before this country was thrown open Messrs Millars sold larger blocks to settlers prior to their (Millars) concession being repurchased by the Government. Now, according to the Act governing this area, no settler is allowed to hold more than 112 acres. The whole of the estate handed over by Millars equals 27,000 acres and this is what is known as the Denmark estate.

11571. Is there plenty of land still available for selection? -Yes, I should say so. All of the 100 acre blocks have not been taken up. There is 50 per cent returned soldiers. There are also a number of blocks selected which are not being used. I was told by a man a few days ago that he should not get long here, and yet there is a number of blocks thrown up in my locality. The area commenced to be settled in October, 1908, and I should say they were only about half a dozen settlers here prior to that.

11572. It is hardly possible, then, that a man can be making any money in that time in this heavily timbered country except of course, by the expenditure of considerable capital?-We were led to believe, according to the advice given to us when we first came here that we should be able to get a return from potatoes, vegetables and such like, in a very short time, but the distance from the markets has convinced us that this is impossible. We have been without facilities for marketing our produce.

11573. Do you find the departmental experts of assistance to you? -Yes, but they have not gone far enough. They went so far and then stopped. For instance, in regard to the bacon and butter factories; they put up buildings so inadequate that the settlers over-supplied in a few weeks and for the past two years we have been unable to get rid of produce available. If the Agricultural Department had kept these factories equipped to take the whole of the produce of the district, the position of the settlers would have been a better one today.

11574. After your experience of the district, in what direction do you consider the greatest advancement can be made? -The general opinion is that dairying and pig raising are the industries to which we must look for advancement. These are the occupations most suitable to the district. The orchards planted are not yet at a profitable stage, but when these come into bearing, and they markets of the world are again available, fruit growing will be another good line. We were induced to come here on account of the advice given us departmentally as to the returns we could get from such crops as potatoes. We find that we can only get four to five tons to the acre on the hill country. You have to manure 12 to 15 cwt to the acre for this crop, whereas Mr James Mitchell, speaking at Kalgoorlie, advised that potatoes could be grown without manure. With regard to the factories not being able to take the whole of the produce: at the time when we could grow pigs best the factory closes down. If the factory were in a position to take all pigs all the year round, the pig industry would have been a great thing here.

11575. Do you consider that if a good factory were placed at Albany this would supply the needs of the Denmark district? -If we are going to have further settlement here, we must have a market at our door. If a factory in Albany could give us ½d per lb more for pigs, I believe the settlers would—