C.—l 4.

22

J. McKEE.

1118. Ai the back of yoUl place there is a long extent of low-lying country! The Hauraki Plains go into the back, it cannot be so extra low when so many people are balloting for the land. I think those people will be worse off than me. God help the people who are living in the Piako I The men who are balloting do not know what they are doing. 109. Can all your cattle run on your land?— Yes, they used to do well in summer. 110. You hav< some leaseholds: 'have you any objection to slating what rentals you pay! Eighteen pounds a war. 111. What area?— Two hundred and sevenly-seven acres. I am now going to throw it up altogether. I have four months to run, and the owner can have it. It is 110 good to me. 112. 1 think there is no demand for dairy cattle about this time of year/ You get a good cow. and in good condition, and in calf, and you will get a price for it. I 13. Do you say there is as big a demand now as at the beginning of the milking-seasol, (—ln the spring—that is the time for the demand. 114 Have you ever seen the Ohinemuri in flood and the Waihou not in flood/—Yes, often. 115 Will you mention any occasions? Tins last H 1. The Waihou was as low as possible. and the Ohinemuri came down with such force it was simply a torrent, and ran up the Waihou Foj three miles, and carried some posts up the river three miles, ami they are lying .here now. 116 17/' Vickerman.] Hid you say you had posts carried three miles up the Waihou I roll, the Junction? Yes. and some c'abbage'-1 rees that I had cut down for the cattle ware lifted ami floated up the river. Mr. Macdonahl and the skippers of two small boats could tell you Ilia, il they wished to do so. . . " 117. Mr. MeVeagh.] How do you identify your cabbage-trees! I am the only man Who lias been ohopping them at the Junction. 118 As a farmer, you know that if a stream of water Hows across the -round, and the sun comes out, you have the grass shrivelled and injured- practically scorched! -Yes. I he worst flood you can have is in the summer. 119, .\, H | the Hood of 1007 was a summer Hood after the drought in December! Ws. there was vein warm weather. . 120. That would account for the damage lo your grass! No: when the sun came out it destroyed the grass in the way I have described. ■ 121 Do you not know that the January 1907 flood was general over the whole province! Do you no, know that the Waikato train service was stopped for a fortnight?-It might have been. 'If it was. i, was all fresh water; it was no, water dirty with tailings A little fresh. water doe nobody any harm: cattle can eat the grass when Ihe water goes oh. Ilut with this othei stufl Oil the gr'as f . the cat tie can no, eat it. , . 122 In 1007 are you not aware thai cattle died a. Hikutaia in consequence of the flood I They might have done.' I know there were a lot of cattle drowned. hey died a. .Netherton. I do no, know about Eikutaia. 1 know some men lost nearly all their milking-cows. 123. Mr. Mu.lhe.] This land was not composed ol peal' No. bin. ol good alluvial, white clay under the 0 in. of soil. 124. The Chairman.] Is that soil peaty? No. 125. How far does the while clay go down! -I cannot say. I he white clay goes down as tai " S Flatman.] Do you consider that g 1 soil! No soil in the Waikato can come up to f or g I cows to keep then, supplied! Yes: I was ashamed to own my cattle going to the sal< ,1m !,,,'■ the las, two or three years. . . , ~ , d " B £t was the amount „f reduction in your butter-production after the last Marc ll(1 ,„l'"-i have been selling the milking-cows off. There were only six milking, and lam „„h liTO s?-No ~ strikes where the island is. The Ohinemuri forces the Waihou back, and hen h Sou overflows back of Netherton into the Piako. Swamp. There is an overflow of .about 2it 0 in. for about seven miles. 4 ha, goes into the swamp. There IS about seventeen miles ol OV€rfl l O 3o' Does the Ohinemuri run from there too/-Certainly ; :ha, is how the tailings get on to If X *ere not fo, the ohinemuri there would be no tailings coming down the Waih lTl You mean to say that all the ladings ,"ha. com,- on your land go up .he Waihou channel : ihev ,1,, not c,, over at the point I -One river backs up the other. ""' L 32. make any'mistake: because some people say that it goes over a, the other place/ No- ihev do not know anything about it. ,-,,--, , ti ,- ,„-,e be -, tttfznxxstrztt • * - taken about a mile above the Junction?— Yes. - ';s v;:;:;; ttZSttZtiz * «>- "• water are distinctive?— Yes, the Waihou is perfectly clear blue water.