n8 



even where there is no railway within a score of miles, has passed 

 into private hands. Let a new arrival look at the sectional maps 

 of the Lands department, which plot the country between Beverley 

 and Albany, and note the huge white spaces, intersected by the 



Great Southern line, marked ' Locn , Western Australian 



Land company, limited.' He can squat where he likes on these 

 spaces, on any of these great tracts that are fertile enough to tempt 

 English investors to spend three quarters of a million of money to 

 acquire them. The land grants, which are once more Crown estate, 

 were the incentive that moved the company to construct a railway 

 243 miles long, at a time when the population of the country was 

 only a fourth of what it is to-day, in the expectation that buyers for 

 the grants would be attracted at prices from L to 2, per acre. 

 The more liberal terms offered by the Government prevented the 

 company making large sales, but notwithstanding that the Lands 

 department gave away free homestead farms and sold conditional 

 purchase blocks at IDS. per acre, there were some customers for the 

 grants of the company. Surely then," says Mr. Ranford, bringing 

 his argument to a point, " land similar to that which, in the hands 

 of the company, realised up to 2 per acre, must be a great acquisi- 

 tion now that it is to be obtained from the Government for nothing, 

 to the extent of 160 acres per man and at los. per acre for any 

 balance up to 1000 acres per man." 



Katanning is 222 miles from Perth ; it is the principal inter- 

 mediate centre on the Great Southern railway, having a larger 

 number of farms and a larger township than any other, with the 

 exception of Beverley and Albany, the starting point and 

 the terminus of the line respectively. The local Lands office, 

 and the post and telegraph office are commodious buildings, 

 and travellers are accommodated at a well appointed hotel. 

 The chief private buildings are the warehouse of Messrs. 

 11., A. and C. A. Piesse ; their roller mill, built of brick, 

 and equal to producing a Very large output ot Hour, was erected 

 before the Yilgarn goldiields created such a great demand for chaff 

 as to induce nearly all the fanners to cut their wheat crops for hay. 

 Katanniug does, however, supply itself with Hour, while Wagin 

 buys Hour from the other colonies at about /.*2O per ton for the year 

 The Messrs. Piesse are anxious to encourage high-class 

 fanning. They have shown the wav in the use of fertili>ers, which 

 are an innovation in the south. In i8<>5 the Messrs. Piesse used 

 bonedtist with SUCCe89 on their paddocks adjoining the railway line. 

 This year (1807) they had tried Thomas's phosphate, drilling" it in 

 with 45 Ibs. ot seed to the acre. The reporter of the Mnreau was 

 taken to see the result of the experiment. The phosphate had been 

 used in a field of light loam, within a quarter of a mile of the 

 railway station. Some of the ground had not been manured. The 

 difference in favour of the phosphate, which was applied in the 

 proportion of two hundredweights to the acre, was most marked. 



