cases at a load. I could grow considerably more fruit if we had a better market. m It would pay us well. The fruit is good enough to compete in any market. Years ago we used it to send it to Norseman, 126 miles. We grow magnificent vegetables and a crop of cereals each year, just seven or eight acres, sufficient for our own stock. We have never had an absolute failure. Occasionally we have had poor crops owing to dry weather. I am not satisfied with the prospects of a return for my outlay and labour. Our crops have not been good enough for the reason that it was too far to cart fertiliser and there was no market for the stuff when grown. Our chief difficulty is lack of market. We have kept stock and done fairly well with them. But for the poison we should have had really good luck with stock. There is poison just outside our fences. We have not sold any fruit to Ravensthorpe. The road to Esperance is of heavy sand. Half a ton per horse would be the maximum load. We had no property and very little money when we started farming on the Dalyup. We have had no assistance from either the Agricultural Department or the Industries Assistance Board.

350. By Mr. PADBURY: How many miles form Mrs. Stewart's is your holding?—About two miles on the Gibson Soak side. There is in locality plenty of land suitable for vegetable and fruit growing if only there was a market. I have no sons. My husband and myself have done all the work on the farm. We are not troubled with any diseases or pests among the fruit. The fruit pays much better than the vegetables. We grow almonds, peaches, figs, plums, apricots, grapes, apples, and pears. Cherries do not do very well. Our place is 16 miles from the railway survey. The poison about our place is marlick. It grows on beautiful land and can easily be eradicated. There was a great deal of it on our land when we went there. We have five or six neighbours within a radius of five miles. We are able to live and keep out of debt. Since the population left Esperance we cannot do as well as we did. We go in more for fruit than for pigs and poultry, of which we keep only sufficient to eat up our surplus fruit. We have only the Esperance market for the disposal of pork. Cattle fatten on the grass alone in our district. We have a beast now and then for the market.

351. By Mr. McDONALD: Is there much good land round about your place?—Yes, a large area of it, miles of it right up to the mallee belt. We are in the bed of the river. There is little sand plain to the East of our land. To the Westward there is good mallee land for miles. There is a little sand plain in the district but not much.

352. By the CHAIRMAN: Is there any further information you would care to volunteer?—It is a good healthy climate, and the district is eminently suitable for fruit and vegetables. We have grown tons of beautiful stuff merely to throw it to the pigs. I have never seen better vegetables in South Australia. All that is required are the labour and the market.

353. Why did you go so far away?—We were on the fields when we saw this district advertised as open for selection and so we came along. We did not know much about farming, and I confess we have found it a bigger struggle than we expected. I had a little experience of farming in South Australia as a girl. The fruit trees make a great deal of growth in our district.

(The witness retired.)

GEORGE IRVINE, aged about 60, Farmer, Orchardist and Grazier, Dalyup River, married, no family—sworn and examined:

354. By the CHAIRMAN: What land do you hold?—About 1,300 acres, including that which is in the wife's name. We have locations 34, 36, 37 and 40 of about 530 acres in all, and in addition 800 acres under Section 68, recently taken up. I have held the four blocks about 10 years. Before I took up the land I was prospecting and mining. I came to West Australia 27 years ago. I had not had much previous experience of farming but knew something of stock, having been manager of Tommoroma Station in New South Wales for five years. I took up some of this land I hold but I bought 343 acres of it partly improved. I paid £300 cash for it. The improvements consisted of part cultivation, fencing, house and shed, and two acres of orchard. I considered the improvements alone worth the money.

355. What improvements have you to-day?—The land is all fenced with rabbit-proof netting and the biggest part of the cleared area of 300 acres has been ploughed. I am dealing now with the C.P. blocks. They are subdivided into seven paddocks. I have 30 acres in crop. I have grown a crop of wheat every year since I went there, 10 years ago. I got a better return than I was entitled to on the cultivation I gave it. I have averaged 15cwt. right through the year. I have put in a new piece every year, so as to get the whole area cleared. If I could cultivate the same land every year I would get much better results. My work in the orchard keeps me employed until too late in the season for sowing wheat. This year it was August before I got my crop in. My fruit is carted 126 miles to Norseman. I have done that every year for eight years. When I reach Norseman I have to compete with the railway from Perth, which serves to keep the price down to 4d., 6d., or thereabouts, per pound. In the early days I used to get as high as 1s. per lb. Even before the railway was built fruit hawkers used to come from Coolgardie. I grow peaches, apples, nectarines, grapes, almonds, pears and other fruit. I find it carts fairly well. I keep 150 Angora goats and 25 horses but no cattle. The goats clear the land for me and I shear them once a year. The goat hair this year brought 8d. per lb. I sell the hair in Albany. Both goats and horses do well in the district. My horses are principally medium draughts. Mostly they are kept on my fenced land. I cannot say what my rabbit-proof fence cost me per mile. The netting cost 29s. per 100 yards. The fence is worth, probably, £60 or so per mile when it is erected. I bought the property from John Goodliff.

356. What is the value of your property to-day?—Without a railway it is worthless.

357. By Mr. PADBURY: Would you give it away?—It would be just as well as to hang on any longer. I am just up against a dead end. I have waited 10 years for a railway and wasted all my capital. If they do not build a railway what a hopeless life to sit down on the farm. I could exist on it but that is not good enough; better to give away the farm and go somewhere else where I can progress with the country. If there is a chance of the railway I will remain.

358. By the CHAIRMAN: Will you leave the place if they do not build a railway?—I am not prepared to say. Given railway facilities the property