THE ROYAL COMMISSIONS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1887, 11 March 1880, Page 3

THE ROYAL COMMISSIONS.

[By Telegraph.] [from our own correspondent.] WELLINGTON, March 10. The Royal Commission on local industries will consist of Mr J. W. Bain, M.H.R.; Mr W. A. Murray, M.H.8.; Mr E. Wakefield, M H.R.; and Mr A. J. Burns, the former member for Roslyn. A fifth may be appointed, but as yet nothing is definitely known on this point. Probably, however, the four above named will be the whole Commission. They will begin work at once. The members of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service in Wellington yesterday, Messrs A. Saunders, M.H.R., and 0. Pharazyn, met informally on Monday and yesterday to arrange preliminaries with the view of saving time. This consisted chiefly in preparing lists of returns, reports, &c, which it was intended to ask the Government to supply to the Commissioners. Mr T. Kelly, M.H.R., the third member of the Commission, arrived this morning from the North, and the fourth, Sir B. Douglas, who left Auckland yesterday, is expeoted in a day or two. Messrs Saunders, Pharazjn, and Kelly mot this morning, and resolved that they would not proceed to the election of a chairman and the appointment of a secretary and shorthand writer until all the Commissioners were present, It is not yet definitely known whether the fifth member of tho commission will be appointed, or if so who it will be.

It is reported, and I believe on good authorily, that the Rail way Commission are very anxious, if possible, to have Mr Higinbotham, the well-known Australian Railway Engitear, as one of their members, and that the Government are agreeably inclined, as his experience and opinion as an impartial outsider would be very valuable in assisting the Commission and Government to form an opinion on the subject of the Commission's inquiry, viz , " The economic value of paying capabilities of the railways undertaken or projected." It is further rumored that the Government are in telegraphic communication with Mr Higinbotham with the view of ascertaining whether he will be able to come.