WHEAT AFTER GOLD

Evening Star, Issue 19796, 21 February 1928, Page 5

WHEAT AFTER GOLD

WEST AUSTRALIAN RICHES RAW FARMERS' SUCCESS The Fast is beginning to realise the place Western Australia is taking among the wheat-producing States of the Commonwealth. This year it is estimated that the harvest which is being garnered in the wheatfiejds of the West will reach a total of 35,000,000 bushels, an advance of 5,000,000 on last year’s crop. In the face of these figures, savs a writer m the Melbourne Tlciald,’ it is difficult to realise that a little over twenty years ago the State was importing wheat to feed its people. Jn 1906 wheat was sent out of the country for the first time. Since that year wheat worth over £28,000.000 has been sent, overseas. , In 1900 not an acre per head of the population was under cultivation. No ono had any faith, since the gold which seemed limitless was petering out. Despair was in the hearts of the people. What could be done to give them some promise of the future? In that dark hour Western Australia had reason to be thankful that she had men of vision and resource faced with the terrible decision of Western Australia’s destiny, knew what road to take and look it. hard and difficult though it was, with unfaltering minds. They determined that this. State, deficient in rivers, patchy in soil quality, should become a great agricultural land. The storv of how they achieved their object is one of tho most fascinating m the history of Australian endeavor. Foremost among these men is Sir James Mitchell, once Premier, now Lender of the Opposition. “Yes, we’ve been successful, Sir James said in an interview. “This is ■an entirely agricultural State, whose future depends on the; demands of tho world’s stomachs. Men are demanding more and more to eat, while the average production of the world’s acres is steadily declining. On those two facts I. see Western Australia’s importance as a great wheat producer growing increasingly great. With wheat at a steady 4s. wo can produce a 50,000,000 crop. At 5s we can touch 100,000,000.”

“How was it done? ” Sir James was asked. “By bringing about what has never been attempted before,” he replied, “ the co-operation of the individual with the State. It has been only partial hitherto. With us it has been complete. u When the gold boom burst/ said Sir James. “ we were in a terrible condition. Things looked black—irretrievable. No wheat was grown except in one small corner of the State, so to speak. 1 felt that in agriculture lay the only chance of a handtul of people with such a big area as this. There seemed to be an insurmountable barrier to this conception. Wo had the land in which I always had the greatest faith, but we had not the fanners. What magic could we employ to bring men to the land—men who, in most cases had not a shilling to buy land or stock or implements. “It was then that 1 felt that complete co-operation between individual and State was the answer to the problem. No other country in the world had ever tried it. Many Governments had given assistance to a rural population, but it had always been a percentage aid. Even 75 per cent, was reckoned a lot to give to help the farmer on to his feet. “ I felt there was a great fallacy in this. It was looking only at the results achievable from the point of view of the farmer. Governments overlooked the fact that every bag of wheat produced was so much good done to tho State itself. I had a conviction that wo couldn’t lose if we offered 100 pel - cent, assistance. In other words, if a man came to us to take up land, we would be in a good wicket if we financed him completely, paying him at a fixed rate for doing" his own clearing, by progress payments authorised by our inspectors, then bv supplying him with the necessary stock ami implements, paying him to plnugh so many acres, and so forth. “We supplied him with the raw material, the land, and with his tools of trade. He supplied the labor and created an asset. Tho unearned increment was our security, if we wanted one. We didn’t. The development of the lands of the State was our value received. The individual was nothing; tho land was everything. Individuals occasionally failed us—only occasionally, however—the land never did. We capitalised our faith in the land and gambled on the men wer picked up from here, there, and everywhere to becomo farmers.”

“ What about the experience necessary to make a good farmer? ” Sir James was asked. “Weren’t you taking a big chance with raw men? ” “Not at all,” was the sturdy answer. “ I was a bank manager before I went into politics, and I knew our assets were good. Whatever work, however inexperienced, was done on the land raised its value.

“ We got men who were poor as poor. We took them from the wharves, from the mines. I went to Kalgoorlie, and asked for 1,000 miners to become farmers. I got them. Men that marched from Fremantle wharves to take on farming on onr terms now drive down to catch the English boats in limousines that cost £2.000. Our plan has been justified in the only possible way—success.”