CHAPTER VII. 



KATANNING, BROOMEHILL, TENTERDEN, MT. BARKER 

 AND ALBANY DISTRICTS. 



Between Wagin Lake and Lime Lake, eight miles southward, 

 there are some first-class unoccupied areas of chocolate soil that 

 are well deserving inspection by enquirers for land. This country 

 is rather heavily timbered with morrell, salmon, and white gums. 

 It is highly recommended by Mr. H. S. Ranford, the Government 

 Land agent, who has a wide and accurate knowledge of the ground 

 along the Great Southern line that is most suitable for settlement. 

 There are thousands of acres awaiting the plough within five miles 

 of the station. As Yaarrabin, u miles nearer Katanning, is 

 approached, the aspect of the country becomes less inviting, a light 

 sandy stretch replacing the ruddy land that \vherever it has been 

 tilled has proved the mainstay of the farmer. The conviction that 

 must force itself upon anyone who makes the journey, is that with 

 hay selling at 7 per ton, and the Katanning roller-mill idle for 

 want of wheat at 55. and 6s. per bushel, it is a great pity to see 

 arable lands bounded by a railway, growing nothing but eucalyptus. 

 " What a contrast is here presented," says the Land agent, " in the 

 broad breadths of Western Australia to that of any of her neigh- 

 bors, where men jostle each other at the ballot-box to get the 

 chance of being the fortunate drawer of the number that will 

 entitle one of a crowd of applicants to the coveted prize of a piece 

 of Crown land ; or to the tedious proceedings of land boards, 

 where the claims of from half a dozen to a score or more selectors 

 who have pegged out the same block, are decided ; where the 

 bachelor has no chance against the married man ; and the newly- 

 married man has to stand aside for the father of a family. Here, 

 equally good land can be had for the asking ; there, even when an 

 applicant has, atter vexatious delays and expense, got a holding, he 

 has to pay \ per acre for it, and go to an usurer, or at best a store- 

 keeper, with a mortgage, in order to carry on, unless he has means. 

 In Western Australia the selector can get advances from the state, 

 through the agency of the Land bank, at 5 per cent., and instead of 

 having to meet his creditor with a substantial instalment of the prin- 

 cipal, after selling his first crop, he can reap five crops before 

 the bank asks him for even a tithe of the loan. Moreover, as selec- 

 tion has had at least 30 years start of Western Australia in the other 

 colonies, all the land near railway lines, and most of the best land, 



