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the good land is all alienated from the Crown ; the Midland 

 company have some of it, especially about Victoria plains. The 

 people there did not make hay while the sun shone, as we did on 

 this side of the line ; I mean, they did not purchase the land while 

 it was in the hands of the Lands department, while we bought 

 largely. A number of farmers selected inside our leaseholds ; the 

 smallest holding is 130 acres ; others have as much as 2,000 acres ; 

 they are mostly graziers. Of the wheat that is grown very little 

 goes out of the district. Each man grows to supply his own family 

 with flour. We have no local surveyed agricultural areas. There 

 has been no new settlement for fifteen years. Twenty-five years 

 ago people \vere taking up land very rapidly in the Midland 

 division. The educational w r ants of the district are only attended 

 to by one school at Dandaraga, as far as public tuition is con- 

 cerned. I have a school for my younger children at the Yatheroo 

 homestead, and the families of the people employed on the place are 

 free to attend and receive instruction. The invitation is 

 generally availed of. I do not think any child is grow- 

 ing up in ignorance in the Midland district, although some 

 of them may have to travel several miles to school. The query 

 as to what capital may be considered essential for a successful start 

 on 500 acres or less, is not one to \vhich a comprehensive answer 

 embracing every case can be given. A great deal depends upon the 

 man and upon circumstances whether he knows his business, is 

 frugal and industrious, and is able to get near a railway station, and 

 not too far from his market ; also, whether he proposes to keep 

 stock. The only point on which I can speak definitely in this rela- 

 tion, is that a man should have at least enough to start him with horses 

 and implements, and pay for wire, fodder, and stores, etc., for at 

 least twelve months, and that will amount to some hundreds of 

 pounds. Of course, I am supposing that a man is expecting to make 

 a reasonably good start, such as will result in his place returning 

 sufficient, during the second year, to maintain a wife and children 

 in tolerable comfort. If a man merely takes up a block of land 

 near where he is employed, in order to have a home of his own and 

 to save rent and the cost of vegetables, my estimate would be con- 

 siderably modified. I am speaking of the, selector who is looking 

 to mixed fanning for a living, and is not open to work for an 

 employer. In that ease he will want to buy some stock, and that is 

 another item of outlay that would have to IK- taken into account, 

 especially as store stock is very scarce, and the price of them is 

 on the rise, because the supply is not equal to the demand. Most 

 of the stores come from the north-west, and the competition for 

 them is getting very keen, because the unfavourable seasons there 

 are keeping down the number of consignments of the station 

 owners. The railway freights are very reasonable, and the farmer, 

 thanks to the goldliekls, can <et a good sale 1 fur his crops, at better 

 prices than do any of our neighbours in eastern Australia. The 



