FRIDAY, 16th FEBRUARY, 1917. (At Wickepin.) ---/--- Present : J. O. Giles, Esq., Chairman. H.H. PAYNTER, Esq., F.E. Venn, Esq. GEORGE ROBERT ARTHUR SHEPHERD, Inspector, Lands Department and Industries Assistance Board, examined :

8358. By the CHAIRMAN : How long have you been in this district? - Seven years. I have been inspector to the Industries Assistance Board since September 1916. I was bred and born on a farm at Balaclava, and was afterward farming in Victoria. My district takes in from here through Dorakin and Duderin to Kunjin and then 10 miles south of Wickepin. There is a tremendous lot of waste country and a proportion of first class, but 50 per cent. of it is good wheat-growing country. There is a quantity of sand plain with poison on it, Narrow Leaf and Box, but very little York Road poison. Box poison that has been cleared and had stock on it afterwards comes up again. It should be stocked. The seeds are like jam. Old settlers say that Box poison is the most deadly after the rain. The settlers as individuals are a very fine lot of people, those on the board especially, and they are doing their best to make good.

8359. By Mr. PAYNTER : Are their methods good?- No, especially in regard to cultivation. Some go in for deep ploughing. They ask me for advice at times, but the new chums from the old country do not ask me. They plough a lot of fallow very roughly and they will not harrow.

8360. By Mr. VENN : Are many of them ready for sheep?- Very few of them. Some of them are fenced in, but they are still not safe on account of the poison, whilst the greatest drawback is the want of water. People who have been here for eight or nine years are carting water for the first time this year. I consider that settlers should have two or three dams on their holdings, and should not depend on one only. A 2,000 yard dam would be a good thing. Generally speaking the ground is good holding land, although at Darkan there is a 2,000 yard dam there nearly dry. The catchment is good, but there has been no opportunity of filling it yet.

8361. By the CHAIRMAN : Do none of them profit by the experience they have gained?- Yes, and no doubt some of them will make good.

8362. Do you take them by the hand?- They are short of implements, that is they have not the implements of the right sort, and I think they should have harrows. I favour a mouldboard for fallow at all times. Our method on the other side as long as the weather is suitable after ploughing, was to hoe and keep the land in tilth. If they had the clods broken, with reasonable weather they could break it up and make a tilth where they never have a tilth now. I would not call fallow what they call fallow.

8363. By Mr. VENN : Have they much land cleared?- The majority of them have not enough , but they can have more money now for clearing. I look after 68 settlers, and none of them have enough cleared land. The Board has practically stopped share farming, as all the wheat must go through the Board. I know one place with 140 acres on that system, and the board will gain 500 bags, because the settler has strength enough to do the work.

8364-5. By Mr. PAYNTER : What is the housing accommodation?- It is wretched. Not 10 per cent. have vegetables of their own or fruit trees, although some of them have a little vegetables in winter and stone fruits do very well. They require advice as to fruit trees. For instance, apples do not do well here. One settler at Dorakin has had peaches and plums for seven years past, two cases to the tree, and they are very healthy; but there is no doctor and no telephone. I heard Mr. J. T. Short promise the wires at the Lake. Some of the old places are very nice around Wickepin, more especially to the west. Roses and Snows are good farms. The only farms abandoned are a few belonging to soldiers. I certainly have never heard of any distress.

8366. We have been told that the Board are not taking on any new accounts, is that so?- Yes, but at the same time their are a few clients that ought to be taken on. One of them came to me yesterday. He has good land and all he wants is manure. He will make good. He has 500 acres cleared.

8367. What sort of man is Congreve?- He is a good fellow, but he does not know farming at all.

8368. You think the district would make good with better methods and better cultivation?- I am sure of it.

8369. What is the best thing to be done with the flat country?- They will have to farm it properly. This year the flats have done best with a light rainfall. There is a man called Simons at Gnarming. All his country is flat, and he stripped over 14 bushels. The flat country where De Gruchy is is well drained naturally, and there are soaks also.

8370. What should be done with the waste country?- Where there is no poison it should be stocked.

8371. Does it want some special tenure?- That is the only way to handle it. There is no use fencing it in otherwise. (The witness retired.)