is absolutely no water difficulty, water being, if anything, too abun- 

 dant. Portions of this area have a limestone formation, which 

 renders them of a special value. There is a site for a sewage 

 farm upon the western side of this area, and a reserve for a town- 

 site in its south-eastern corner. It is approached from Perth by 

 Nicholson's road, which is now ben^ macadamised, and from 

 Fremantle by the Forrest road, which traverses the area, striking 

 the Perth-Bunbury road at the fourteen-mile post. This latter 

 road has lately been cleared about half its width from end to end. 

 On the eastern side of the area, and about three miles from the nearest 

 portion, runs the South-western railway. An undoubted drawback 

 to the locality has been the comparative lack of good roads leading 

 to it, or to serve as feeders to the railway ; but the works now in pro- 

 gress will, to a great extent, do away with this objection. The con- 

 tiguity of the area to the Perth and Fremantle markets, and the richness 

 of much of the land, are still, however, great elements of attraction, 

 and out of the 36,000 acres of this area 34,300 are survex eel, of 

 which seventy-eight selectors have taken up 16,539 acres. The 

 present settlement is well distributed over the area. There arc 

 several farms and holdings in a highly improved condition. 



The value of the limestone for the vine is exhibited on the pro- 

 perty of Mr. W. D. Moore, on the Canning road about two miles out 

 of Fremantle. The vineyard yields superb crops of grapes of 

 the best wine and table varieties, and from a few acres the returns 

 obtained would form a substantial income, if the proprietor weie 

 not a large merchant and a gentleman of affluent means, whose 

 pleasure it is to have a rural home looking out upon one of the 

 most flourishing gardens which skilled culture and a wise choice of 

 site unite in forming. It is Mr. Moore's recreation to demonstrate, 

 by the means of this plantation, that in the limestone having an 

 easterly aspect the vine will do even better here than it will on the 

 sunny slopes of France. Not only on Mr. Moore's estate, 

 but also at Rockingham, where there is another splendid vine- 

 yard, as much as 12 tons of muscatels per acre have been 

 picked and marketed. The vines at the latter place were 

 planted on the site of a limestone quarry. The stone was 

 taken out for building purposes and the excavation having been 

 filled in with the soil of the neighbourhood, the cuttings were put 

 in by way of experiment many years ago, when the capabilities of 

 Western Australia as a fruit producing country were not as well 

 known as they are to-day. 



The fig is also a greedy feeder on the limestone, and asks for 

 no more care than the native ecualyptus. A cutting thrust in the 

 sandy soil grows like a weed, until it attains an enormous size and 

 is so heavily laden with fruit that it is profitable to use it for fatten- 

 ing pigs. Mr. William Paterson, manager of the Agricultural 

 Bank, is planting 40 acres near Mandurah with figs, in order to 



