496 THURSDAY,15th FEBRUARY, 1917.(At Lake Yearling.) Present : J. O. Giles, Esq. (Chairman). H. H. Paynter, Esq. | F. E. Venn, Esq. Extract from Evidence. The Rev. THOMAS GRAY, Presbyterian minister, The Manes, Yearling, sworn and examined :

8319. By the CHAIRMAN : The Commission would be glad if you would make some statement as to the position of medical and other attention in this district, concerning which we understand you are specially qualified to inform us ?—I have been stationed here for the last four years and I may say that I am a doctor as well as a Presbyterian clergyman. I was originally trained as a medical missionary for Africa, and my medical training has stood me in good stead in the State. My district extends from here to Yilliminning, 14 miles north, and to the fence on the other side of Bullaring. I submit to you a sample of one of the many petitions that reached me in the course of my duty. (letter read.) I may mention that this is the forth case that has been submitted to me this week of sickness. Then there are two men who have been laid aside with illness, and those crops have therefore remained unstripped. Something, I feel, should be done in this district in the way of medical health, even if for a start there was a trained nurse only. During the past 18 months and 10 days I have attended to 13 bad throats. Dr Pring, of Wagin, owing to his absence in Perth, was unable to come out here. One child died in my arms. It suffered from quinsy and ulcerated throat, but that was not the exactly the cause of death ; it was of epictaxes or bleeding of the nostrils while the discharge went into the stomach and resulted in death by syncope. An inquiry was held in due course. Three days after the death of the child the teacher of the State school fell ill from the same cause and was laid aside for three weeks. Dr. Mackay who practice in Narrogin, does not look for cases from here as he is too busy a man. Indeed, he is demurred for want of time from attending to those who are sent in from here. There is a doctor at Pingelly and another at Narrogin, But these are vast distances from here, and for the time being a trained nurse would be better than nothing. I notified my church that I should require to leave here in April for a rest, but unfortunately, they have refused to let me go. Actually while I have ben out here I have been doing the work of the G.M.O., and yet my church authorities pay £96 per annum to keep me here not as a Presbyterian minister only, but also to do the work that I have referred to. I have had three farmers recently consulting me suffering from strained back, the result of loading wheat, and they have been supplied medicine out of my own pocket. My church expected that the farmers here would be in a position to raise £ 6s 8d. a month among the four congregations that I attend to, But it is quite impossible for them to do it ; they are without funds and they are on the Industries Assistance Board.

8320. By Mr PAYNTER : They have an allowance given to them for that sort of thing by the Industries Assistance Board ?-Well, if that is so they do not pay it up. I might mention Mr. Turpin, of the Cross Roads, 11 miles from here, who brought his daughter to me suffering from a throat affection. An operation was necessary at once, and so I personally escorted the girl to Dr. Mackay, but Mr. Turpin's circumstances are so bad that the family was sleeping under sacks during the last winter. My friends provided them with blankets. Turpin Sent in a bill for £5 for the medical attention received by his daughter to the Industries Assistance Board, but it has not been paid, and in fact, they have declined to pay it, and so it comes about that poor Turpin is struggling to pay Dr. Mackay bit by bit out of 9s. a day the amount due to him for this attendance on his child, and up-to-date he has been able to pay off only £1. If that girl had not been operated on she there was only one chance out of 50 that she could have pulled through.

8321-2. By Mr. VENN : Was the account supported by you when it was sent to the Board?—It was sent in by Dr. Mackay, who performed the operation on her. But since then as they have refused to pay the father is trying to save enough from his 9s. allowance to pay him off. The hard ship of it is that Dr. Mackay had to fee another doctor, who administered the chloroform to the child.

8323. By Mr. VENN : In the South-West there are district nurses every few miles. Why not thin them out and send them to these outlying districts if they will go. Of course, we have heard that they demur to going out back on account of the arduous conditions of life ?—I must point out my church supports several hospitals itself, but I know of many folk who refrain from taking up land because of the absence of sufficient medical assistance. Probably it must have cost me during the past year out of the absence of sufficient medical assistance. Probably it must have cost me during the past year out of my pocket £10 for medicines for my sick parishioners. Indeed, the present is the first harvest that they have had. Three years ago I could have got a