MOTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1917, Page 5

MOTHER COUNTRY.

DOMINIONS COMMISSION RE- ' PORT ASSISTING DOMINIONS' POTENTIALITIES, A SERIATIM BEYIEW. Lontlon, March 2:,. The Dominions Commission, in its fin*' and unanimous report covering five years' investigation, static tluit it visited every capital, every State r.r.d every province in tlie five Dominion*, iield 103 sittings, and examined 830 witnesses.

The report acknowledges indebtedness to the assistance of Mr. Knibbs durine its Australian tour and Mr. Malcolm Ross in New Zealand.

Reviewing the Dominions seriatim the report imercntially favors assi-ting the development of the potentialities in Canada. .South Africa. Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland in the order named.

The Australian interior is largely waterless and impossible of settlement, northern Queensland, northern Westra!ia, and the Northern Territory liave Hot proved suitable for a largo white population; nevertheless there are enormous areas, mainly in the coastal belt, as healthy as any country in the world] with a beautiful climate and sufficient rainfall. It is the most sparsely populated civilised country in the world. , • The commission criticised the undue aggregation of population in the towns. The wheat areas were enormous, but lacking in railways, and the average yield per acre was 50 per cent, below that of Canada. The mineralogical potentialities were enormous, particularly m Queensland, which many believe wiil rank as the first of the States mineralogically.

New Zealand was a splendid agricultural country, another Britain of the southern sons. The social legislation and even distribution of wealth in New Zealand were probably more advr.nced than in any part of the Empire.

DEVELOPMENT BOARD 'PROPOSED.

The principal recommendation is the creation of a permanent Imperial Development Board under the direction of a Permanent Imperial Conference, comprising twelve members intimately acquainted with the Empire, seven representing Britain, India and the Crows. Colonics, and one from each of the five Dominions.

The hoard will have its headquarters in London and make frequent Empir-j peregrinations through the' Empire. If* main function will he to complete and continue the work begun by the commission in relation to the' production £.nd distribution of food and raw materials throughout the Empire, Empire capital lor the development of scientific research, the employment of Empire resources, emigration within the Empi.-e, steamships, cables and railways in so far as contributory to Imperial develop- ' ment, legislation affecting trade, the preparation of Imperial statistics. ' The hoard will be purely advisory in its initial stages and must not encroach on the political or administrative machinery of the self-governing Dominions. Us principal duty will be- to initiate or report on schemes remitted by the. Imperial Conference in participation with ■Wlo 'Governments. SHIPPING SUGGESTIONS. Inter-Imperial communication demands vessels of greater draught and length, necessitating the deepening of the harbors on the Suez, Cape and Can;dian routes, notably at Fremantie, Adelaide, Melbourne, Lyttelton and Pert Chalmers. The Australasian dry docks are inadequate except at Sydney. The shipping services need reviewing in 1920, when the Orient Company's contract expires, with tlic view of securing an IS knot service, landing mails at Adelaide in 2*5 days 14 hours via Suez, 28 days via the Cape, and 25 days to New Zealand via Halifax and Vancouver. The subsidised services must submit a schedule of freights to the Governments, and obviate differential rates inimical to Imperial trade. EMIGRATION. The commission recommends the creation of a Central Emigration Board unfler British Governmental direction with a consultative board comprising Dominions' representatives. The commission discountenances the emigration of soldiers without adequate capital or training, and urges increased female emigration to redress the balance of sexes. CABLE SERVICE. The conference recommends Government acquisition of the Atlantic cable and the land line from Nova Scotia to Montreal and connecting with the Pacific, , and afterwards reducing the full rates to two shillings, deferred to one shilling, week-end cables to six-pence, and press rates correspondingly. This assumes the abolition of the Commonwealth's unjustifiable terminal charge of fivepence. The nationalisation of private cables is becoming an urgent problem of statesmanship and the commission endorses Sir Joseph Ward's views thereon at the. Imperial Conference in 1911. " OTHER MATTERS. Other recommendations are for a quinquennial census throughout the Empire; inter-Imperial itinerant exhibitions; unification of legislation concern-) ng patents, trade marks and companies; : modification of the double income laxand uniform Imperial decimal coina'-o and metric weights and measures. ° ORGANISING MEAT RESOURCES. London, March 25. The Government has appointed a committee under Lord Devonport to coordinate and organise the home and imported meat resources for the 'army and civil population..

SUGGESTED TARIFF OX IMPORTED FOODSTUFFS'. London, March 25. 'An interim report by Lord Selborue's committee on the increase of homegrown food supplies, recommends the establishment of wages boards and guaranteed minimum prices for wheat and oats, and suggests a tariff on imported dairy produce, meat and corn, if imported manufactured goods are taxed, and the appointment of assessors empowered to supersede owners of badly farmed land. 'JTIie report declares that rabbits must be recognised M # jury to wioulture