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local buyer will too often demand the imported article, though the price is much higher. And, as with boots, so with many other articles. Your Committee would therefore suggest that an effort be made to induce our people to patronise their own industries, and it recommends that manufacturers be encouraged and assisted in prompting a publicity campaign in order to bring before the people the quality and value of every class of New-Zealand-made goods. The campaign should include exhibitions, displays at local shows, wall-sheets in schools and at railway-stations, leaflets for distribution to school-children, and specially written and illustrated articles in the upper-standard copies of the School Journal. Your Committee has also had evidence of the apparent disinclination of public Departments to encourage local manufactures. During the prevalence of the recent epidemic this country would have been almost destitute of disinfectants but for the supplies forthcoming from the New Zealand manufacturing firms. Yet some of the largest consumers of disinfectants in ordinary times had never thought it worth while to patronise the local makers. There are a number of other productions the manufacturers of which get no orders from our State Departments, and your Committee recommends that such a questionable state of things should be remedied at once. Iron and Steel. Ore and Sand Deposits. The Dominion's geographical isolation and remoteness from overseas supplies of iron and steel should impel us as far as possible to adopt a policy that will enable us to rely on our native resources. Pioneers engaged in the production of iron and steel from the ores and sands of New Zealand have met with varying success, but up to the present there is no well-established concern engaged in the manufacture of this most important essential. The Committee is convinced that there are considerable quantities of the raw material, both ore and sand, in the Dominion. The evidence submitted as to whether the manufacture of iron could be profitably undertaken in the near future was somewhat contradictory; although many witnesses agreed that iron of good quality has been produced. There was a marked disagreement among witnesses as to the presence of suitable coal in sufficient quantities in the vicinity of the ore deposits. It was confidently asserted by some witnesses that so far as the working of the Parapara iron deposits is concerned, coal of good quality and in sufficient quantity exists in the Collingwood County. Other witnesses doubted the accuracy of this statement. In view of the potential value of these coal-measures, if they do exist, and also in view of the contradictory evidence on the point, your Committee recommends that as soon as practicable the district be systematically prospected for coal deposits. Rails, Pig and Bar Iron. The output of the Lithgow works in Australia is about 40,000 tons per annum, whereas New Zealand's present demand for iron and steel is about 100,000 tons. The Committee believes therefore that, provided the minerals are of the necessary quality and quantity, the manufacture of pig iron, railway-rails, and bar iron can be carried on successfully in New Zealand. It is disappointing to have to note that though the Government in 1914 offered a bonus for the production of a marketable iron, no claim has yet been made for payment of any part of such bonus. Services of Metallurgist. In view of the word's shortage of iron and steel, and of the increasing demand for these commodities within the Dominion both by the State and by private enterprise, your Committee is of opinion that the value of our iron deposits, both ore and sand, should be thoroughly examined into by an expert metallurgist, who should have a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of iron and steel by modern methods, and whose services should be secured for the special purpose of advising as to whether the quality of the deposits and the conditions obtaining with respect to them, and in the country generally, are such as warrant the establishment of the industry in New Zealand. It is recommended that the expert should be obtained