C—l 4.

20

J. MCKEE.

30. Have you any particulars as regards the March flood ?—All the tailings have not been put on by one flood. One Hood deposited perhaps two or three inches, and subsequent floods another half-inch, and so on. 31. Did you suffer any special damage during the last flood? —Yes. 32. Can you give us any particulars of that damage?—The grass was the biggest loss. When you lose the grass the cattle grow thin, and it is a big loss. 33. Did you use the cows for the creamery?—No, for making butter. After the flood goes away the whole of the grass is as if you took a paint-brush and painted it. The marks are round the kahikatea-trees as if you had painted it with silt. 34. Does it wash oil the grass easily?—lf the rain comes on as the flood is going down this stuff will pretty well wash off. 35. Not all wash off? —If the flood goes down and it happens to be fine weather, and the sun comes out, this stuff dries on the grass, and there it sticks. 36. Were you forced to sell any of your stock at the Hikutaia sale last month?— Yes. 37. What did they fetch?—l sold good cows half-gone in calf at £2 apiece—cows that 1 expected to get £4 10s. for; but I had no feed to give them. They were good dairy cows, with no blemishes on the teats. 38. Would you have sold them at all if you had had feed for them? —No. 39. Did you attempt to sell any others at the Paeroa sale?— Yes; forty-two head I offered, and I was not offered a shilling apiece for them, because they had been eating this grass, and it affects the cattle. I sold some heifers, but I took nineteen cows back home again. 40. Mr. Flatman.] Were they good-bred cattle?— Yes; I am going to put them in the next Hikutaia sale. They are no good to me. If there is another flood they will only die. 41. What is the market value of a cow?—lt depends on the condition. £6 ss. is the average. 42. Did the water come up into your house?—The last flood did. It is the first time it ever came in. 43. Whereabouts is your house? —Just below the Junction, at the mouth of the Ohinemuri. 44. What depth of water came into the house? —Two inches. 45. How high is the house above the level of the land?—lt has about 2 ft. 6 in. blocks, 1 think. 46. What is your position now as regards this property : do you intend to keep it?—l do not intend to keep the leasehold. I suppose I shall have to stick to the freehold, or let the Waihi Company do what they like with it. 47. Have you worked long on this land? —Yes, I have practically spent all my life on it. 1 worked it fo provide a home for myself in my old age, but I am afraid I shall not be able to keep it. Ido not know whether I could sell it. 48. What about the dwellinghouse : do you intend to move that at all?— Yes, in three weeks' time. I have arranged for the carpenters to shift, the building. 49. Where are you going to shift the building to?—I bought 10 acres adjoining the railway. 50. Close to Paeroa? —Yes, on the high land: I am done with the flats. 51. Did you buy this additional piece of land for the express purpose of putting your house on it ?—Yes, to make my family safe. 52. Would you have purchased 'his additional piece if your other land had turned out as you expected ?—No. 53. The Chairman.] What did you give for the 10 acres you have just bought? —A hundred pounds. I bought it cheap. 54. Mr. Mueller.] Do you know that that land was bought some ten years ago at £10 an acre?—l heard he gave close on £100 for it. The owner has been away from here a long time. 55. During the floods at your place near the Junction, have you had to chop down cabbagetrees and willow-trees for feed for your stock? —Yes, in order to keep the cattle alive. There is no bridge to get the cattle across the river. 56. You have been on the land for ten or twelve years : what is the result of the labour and money you have put into ii / A good deal of money has been spent on the place one way or another. 1 have got nothing for my labour and expenditure. I have had to discharge my working-men, and now I am left by myself. 57. According to your account, you will soon be off?— Yes, if another flood comes. 58. The Chairman J How much of the 440 acres is freehold and how much leasehold?— Seventy-two acres freehold, the rest leasehold. 59. Mr. Mueller.] You produce photographs showing the effects of the flood on your land, and the silt deposited on it/—Yes. and I have here a photograph of the last paddock I ploughed. [Exhibit No. 7.] I have also a sample of sill taken about 150 or 200 yards back from the river, and about one mile up the Waihou. 'I he deposit was about 6 in. deep. I have two other samples —one taken 1 chain back, and the other 10 chains back; the third was taken about a mile up the Waihou. 60. Mr. Moresby.] I think you have tried ploughing it in? —Yes; I have sown grass-seed on the top. I have ploughed in about 6 in., and only touched the old formation—just skimmed the black soil underneath. lil. Have the original banks of the river on your land been added to by the silt? —Yes. 62. Can you say to what extent the encroachments are? —Four or five yards in some places. It all depends on how the current strikes the bank. 63. There are some big encroachments in some places?— Yes. 64. I think you use the river a good deal between the Junction and Thorp's Bend?- Yes: three or four times a week. 65. Do you consider that that portion of the river is any shallower than it was formerly?—lt is a lot shallower.