SATURDAY, 21st OCTOBER, 1916.
                                                                                           (At Norseman.
                                                                                                — — — — 
                                                                                                 Present:
                                                                     Charles Edward Dempster, Esq. (Chairman).
                                   Mathew Thomas Padbury, Esq.                                  Ranald McDonald, Esq.
                                                                                                 — — — — 

JOHN ROBERT SCHOLEY, aged 54, Hotelkeeper, Norseman, married—1 boy, age 14, 2 stepsons (one at home, the other in France), sworn and examined:

221. By the CHAIRMAN: Do you hold any land in the Esperance district?—I have altogether 2,350 acres of grazing lease under section 68. The location numbers are 374 and 548. One lease of 1,135 acres was taken up in 1904 on a 30 year lease. I purchased that lease with improvements four years ago. The balance I selected myself three and a half years ago. That is also grazing under section 68. It was fixed at 7s. 6d. per acre, but it has been reduced to 6s. I have had very little previous experience in farming. I have been accustomed to horses and stock. The whole of the land is fenced and sub-divided with six wires costing £22 per mile; in all about ten miles of fencing. I have a four roomed house, a stable for seven horses, an implement shed a hay shed, a chaff house, and an engine room. The value of the house is £200, and of the stable and implement £78. The water supply is in wells and dams valued at £20. I have 100 sheep, eight or ten head of cattle and half a dozen horses. We sank a well 20 chains from an established well and got a good supply at 15 feet. Any quantity of fresh water can be obtained for shallow sinking. The upper strata give salt water, but once through that one gets perfectly fresh water. We have cleared about 80 acres. Clearing costs 22s. 6d. an acre. I have lived on the land for three years. The first year we cropped 50 acres of newly ploughed land. We had no harrows. We sowed one bushel of wheat to the acre and from 60lbs. to 70lbs. of super. Eighteen acres of oats were not good enough to cut. The yield from 32 acres was 20 tons of hay. In the second year I ploughed 30 acres and another 20 acres that had been self-sown I got 25 tons from the lot. For the next crop I cultivated 25 acres and ploughed the 20 acres that had been self-sown the previous year. In addition I put in 15 acres of new land, using one bushel of seed and 60lbs. of super. The portion cultivated was a better crop than that which I re-ploughed, but the new land was almost a failure. It was a very wet year and the crop in low lying area died back. Only about half the new land was reaped. It was very poor; only 5 cwt. The total yield in the third year was 25 tons from 60 acres. On nine acres I sowed three bags of Lots wheat. The results was patchy, but equal to 15 cwt. per acre. Federation wheat proved not nearly as good. The land is easily cultivated. The subsoil is gravel and clay varying in depth. I had fair success with sheep, but the wild dogs were very troublesome. I bought 100 sheep two and a half years ago. Two years afterwards I had about the same number. I lost 50 or 60 to the dogs. It is necessary that the sheep should have an occasional change from the natural bush. In the cultivated paddocks native grasses spring luxuriantly. I think the land is better for fallowing, but I have not had much experience of the system. I came back to Norseman six months ago having left the place in charge of a young fellow who has put in 10 acres of crop on fallow. I found that the cattle, like the sheep, require a change from the native bush. With the coming of the grass following on cultivation, the stock would do really well. I tried an experimental plot of mixed grasses including Subterranean clover which did very well indeed. Italian rye does well also. We are in a 25-inch rainfall. Dingoes are very bad. I had to dispose of my sheep on account of the pest. I am satisfied that the land will grow anything. I do not know whether wheat or hay will pay. I have considerable success with turnips, potatoes, onions, maize and grasses. I have not had a failure with any of them.

222. What value of machinery have you?—Seed drill, £50; spring tooth cultivator, £21; 3-furrow plough, £36; 4-horse power oil engine, £53; chaffcutter, £21; spring dray and wagonette, £20 the two. I have kept a couple of pigs; they did very well. I am convinced that it would pay to cultivate the land if we had a good market.

223. By Mr. PADBURY: How would you get that?—By railway communication with the goldfields. We cannot make the proposition payable without the railway. I keep one man on the place just now with half wages and a bonus for ploughing. My land is right outside the mallee country. It is only nine miles from Esperance. It is within a mile of the railway survey.

224. By the CHAIRMAN: You have laid out £700 in improvements?—Yes, and seven years rent on one block and three and a half years on the other. Every bush in the sand plain country is edible, but the stock must have a change on to grass. We have no poison. The country is ideal for mixed farming; the ground will produce anything. I intend to make a home on my land. I would prefer to be there now if I could. There is a lot of unselected country similar to mine.

                                                                                         (The witness retired.)

The Commission adjourned.