stone fruit are doing well. I have a house with outbuildings, a men's camp, and stables for six horses, a chaff house, a piggery, a hay shed, and a machinery shed.

212. What have you spent on the property ?—Since January, 1913, I have spent £2,000 on the property, inclusive of cropping. I had 400 acres cleared at approximately 30s. an acre, or £600 ; fencing, £100 ; wells, £25 ; freight and cartage, £350 ; house and buildings, £150 ; hay shed, £100 ; stables and men's camp, £100 ; implements and vehicles, £225 ; horses, £240 ; pigs, £9.

213. Are you satisfied with your prospects on this land ?—Yes.

214.Is there more sand-plain equal to yours in the district ?—Yes, a quarter of a million acres or more.

215. Have you grown any potatoes ?—Yes, on three-quarters of an acre, with six cwt. of seed. They are going to be a positive success. Hay does not pay me to market.

216. Do you intend to carry on with this land whether the railway is built or not ?—That is my intention, hoping with the sheep and pigs to make it pay by walking them to Norseman. It will never pay to cart to market.

217. Would you be prepared to exchange your holding for another in some other district ?—No.

218. Have you had assistance from the Agricultural Department ?—No.

219. Is your wife on the holding ?—No. I am now on my way to fetch her from Coolgardie to take up her residence on the farm. I have sown one cwt. of super. to the acre. Next year I intend to try bonedust. I have not had previous experience of farming on the mallee. I have sown 40lbs. of wheat. This I found to be too thin ; 60 lbs. is more satisfactory. Yandilla King and Lotz do well. Alpha does not stool well. 220. By Mr. PADBURY : How did you do your clearing ?—Ran the mallee roller over the blackboys and let it lay ; grubbed up the balance and put a fire though the lot. The average rainfall is 30 inches. I have ploughed four inches deep. We have a gravel and clay subsoil for the most part. I have never been troubled with any salt. My holding is 11 miles from Esperance and adjoins the railway survey. All my goods went from Coolgardie. Two cart loads of furniture will cost me £30. If it could be trained right through it would cost me £10. In January, 1913, four tons of building material from Coolgardie to Norseman cost me £5 6s. 8d. and from Norseman to the farm, carting with my own team ; it cost me £6 per ton. Eight tons of building material, railway weight from Coolgardie to Albany were charged up to 16 tons cubic measurement on the ship to Esperance, with freight at 22s. 6d. per ton. A cultivator cost £21 cash in Perth. Sent in cases it paid a reasonable freight, but it would have cost £5 more if it had been set up in Fremantle. On a reaper and binder the freight from Albany to Esperance is £7 10s. It is impossible to make farming pay under existing conditions. I have two men working regularly. I pay then £3 a week and they find themselves. I also have an old carpenter working at £1 a week and food. (The witness retired.)

The Commission Adjourned.