pipes to serve their life, but let the settlers know that during the life of the pipes they had better look out into the future with a view to supplying themselves?—The Boring Department in other districts have an extensive plant and bore for water, and perhaps they may put down 20 holes and get no water, but the work they do is not charged for; it is added to the purchase money. The policy of the Governement was to provide a water supply in districts remite from the Goldfields Water Scheme every eight miles. This cost and the cost of roads has been added to the price of land and is paid for by the settler. In the later settled districts the cost was added to the value of the land?—The old people got the benefit of the better roads and the water supply, but the country is too salt. I had the hire of the Government plant myself, but I found that I did not have the time to attend to it. Personally I have kept off the I.A.B. and like others who acted similarly I have received no consideration at all.

7919-20. By Mr PAYNTER: Can you not carry stock?—Yes, but I am not doing so now because I cannot get water for them.

7921. But there is water allotted to you and you do not use it?—The reason we do not use it is that we have not the money to buy the stock, and I will read you a letter which I wrote to Mr Paterson on the subject.

7922. By the CHAIRMAN: If you had stock, would you use the scheme water?—Yes. I may add that the water main runs diagonally across my block. I put down a small dam 12 feet deep, and the result was that I struck salt water. The reason for this is that the lake country runs right through the locality. Moreover, wells are no good in forest country. The Government made 20 tries before they got fresh water at Yarding, and when they got it the supply proved to be insufficient. If we can obtain the water at a reasonable rate, and if we could run the stock on it we certainly would use it, but there are a number of settlers who would be glad to see it taken away altogether tomorrow. Many of them do not use it at all. Still, I must admit that the whole problem is a difficult one, and the only other solution to my mind is to form a trust and take the scheme over, but even that could not be done for the same old reason that the farmer has not got any money.

7923. By Mr VENN: How many sheep can you carry?—Three hundred comfortably, and at £20 a year for water I could run that number. That would pay the water rate and leave a margin. I only keep a few sheep for killing purposes, and they have cut 10lbs of wool. As a matter of fact, I had an offer of 100 sheep on the easiest of terms, but I was frightened to buy them for another reason, That is the kangaroo dogs. We have no dingoes, but the tame dogs that have gone wild are a far worse menace.

7923a. By the CHAIRMAN: I am not a married man, and I live in a camp, but I have an eight-stall stable, a full farming plant, seven working horses, and practically no other stock, I have been working day and night for the last six years, and have not drawn a penny for myself, and before that I put in a fairly long time in Canada, and that is a very hard country to live in. It is very hard on the farmer to have to pay a shilling freight on every bag of wheat that he send to the coast, and then he has to pay 10½d. to handle it on the sidings, so that he pays out practically 2s 9d a bag every time. I have no cause to complain of the dry year, in fact I had plenty of seed for myself and some to sell, although I did not have a crop. I owe the Agricultural Bank of £800, and my total liabilities would be about £1,000, but it is the interest that kills one. With £50 for interest, £25 for water and rent, the proposition is an impossible one, if there is to be any balance left on wheat farming.

7924. Your liability of £1,000, seeing that you have 450 acres cleared, is relatively small?—I had about £350 cash when I came here, and I cannot see where I have wasted a £5 note. I have done all the work myself, although in one year I employed a wages man, but I took contracts outside.

7925-9. Though your investment is £350 on 1,000 acres of land, you would find that, were you in York, Beverley, or other such districts, it would amount to fully £1,500, and it does not appear that they are growing any more wheat there than you are here?—But, on the other hand, they have sheep. These districts must arrive at the stage when stock have to be kept.

7930. By Mr PAYNTER: You recognise, I hope, that the farmer should have selected grain for sowing?—Yes, and it should be selected by official agricultural experts. I graded my seed and pickled it until last year, when I had my highest average, namely, 19 bushels. This year it will average 14 bushels. A 10-bushel crop only pays the cost of putting in and taking off. I use a 10-disc plough with seven horses, and average seven acres a day; a 35-tyne cultivator, which does 25 acres; and a 16-disc drill which does 14 acres a day. I used the harrows last year, but the country is not yet ready for harrowing as it is too dirty. I generally let a contract to bind. I have a 5ft sunshine harvester, which does about six acres daily, and I plough about five inches in cleared land. I like to cultivate it twice. Larger implements would no doubt lessen the cost of production, but the tariff is responsible for the high cost of everything you buy, and particularly jutes. The rainfall is supposed to be 12 inches, at least that is shown on the Government Lithos, but I am not in a position to say definitely whether it is so. In fact, I do not believe the Government had sufficient data when they printed that on the lithos. Sometimes in the summer there are showers, but, of course, they are of no use to one.

7931. By the CHAIRMAN: The records show that 90 per cent of the rain falls in the rainy season here. What assistance have you had from the Agricultural Department experts? That is an institution maintained for the purpose of assisting settlers with literature, advise, and the dissemination of varied ideas in regard to farming?—I have had no assistant from them at all. True, I have had interviews with Mr Sutton, but he is too busy a man to attend to one.

7932. Have you seen evidence of a designed system of conveying information to settlers?—No. In Canada every farmer is supplied with bulletins, but I have not seen any local publications, and if there are any, the settler would not be supplied with them unless he specially asked for them.