6o 



light rainfall, the existence of poison plants, and large private estates 

 that are being used solely for grazing, the Avon district within 

 which York and Beverley and their surroundings are included is 

 in a highly prosperous condition, from the agriculturist's point of 

 view. In all directions wheat fields are being reclaimed from the 

 forests ; the trees are being grubbed and burned ; every grower, 

 whether large or small, is extending his operations ; new 

 and improved machinery is being purchased, and large sums 

 of money are going into the pockets of local producers, 

 instead of being sent to other colonies for food supplies. And yet 

 only a beginning has been made ; the traveller can ride for miles 

 through country as good as that from which heavy harvests are 

 being reaped, but upon which nothing but ringbarking has been 

 done. It is the aim of the Government and of all friends of 

 Western Australia to settle these lands, to burst up large squattages; 

 not by spoliation in the form of a penal land tax such as has been 

 resorted to in other places that could be named, but by the making 

 of an unconstrained bargain with the owner. They want to see the 

 colony freed from the reproach which is often unjustly levelled by 

 its detractors, that Western Australia is unable to grow sufficient 

 wheat to feed the people. It is true that wheat is not largely 

 grown, but that does not imply that it cannot be largely grown. 

 The upspringing of the colony into a great and prosperous country 

 has occurred so suddenly ; fleets of steamers from all parts of the 

 world, but chiefly from the sister colonies, have been disembarking so 

 many thousands of emigrants upon Western Australia's shores ever}' 

 year since 1892, that there has not been time to cater for their 

 wants. As Sir John Forrest said, in declaring the policy of the 

 Government on the approach of the general election which took 

 place in June fast, the colony is more than capable of doing that, and 

 it would be done even if the Government had, for lack of a sufficient 

 number of yoeman, to clear land and turn farmers themselves. 



To anyone who has watched the progress of the farming in- 

 dustry in the Avon district nothing is more gratifying than to note 

 the modern methods that have come in vogue. Until gold was 

 discovered at Yilgarn, husbandry was for the most part conducted 

 on a primitive scale ; single furrowed ploughs were in general use, 

 a seed sower was unknown, and a steam cliafi'cutting plant quite a 

 rarity. Now two or three furrow ploughs are always employed; 

 there are seedsowers, reapers and binders, and all the hay is chaffed 

 by steam. The railway trucks are gay with the brightly painted 

 devices on the implements of standard makers travelling to the 

 homesteads of men who are earnest in their endeavour to grusp the 

 advantages they enjoy and economise costly manual labor in in- 

 creasing the output of their holdings. 'Hie Government, determined 

 that the producers' tools of trade should go untaxecl, has during the 

 two sessions carried proposals for the remission of duty upon fenc- 

 ing wire, galvanised iron wire, and other material which is used by 



