THE DOMINIONS' COMMISSION.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15860, 27 March 1917, Page 7

THE DOMINIONS' COMMISSION.

A COMPREHENSIVE REPORT. AN IMPERLA.L DEVELOPMENT BOARD. (By Cable—Picas Association—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. C*bla AmocmUou.) LONDON, March 25. The Dominions Commission, in # final and unanimous report covering live years' investigation, states that visited every capital or every btnu: and province in ttie live Dominions, held J.till sittings, and examined Hoo witnesses, 'lno ropoit uuuiio»'ieu&v.-> the Commission's indebtedness lor assistance to JVir ivnibbs, Commonwealth Statistician, during tho Australia, i tour, and to Captain fllalcoiin ltoss, who acted as secretary wnile m - Ncu Zealand. . . Reviowin c tho Dominions seriatim, the report inferenwiijy favours tiio development of the potentialities of Canada, South Africa, Australia, Now Zealand, and Newfoundland in the order naniod. It stateß that the Australian. interior is largely waterless, and impossible of settlement. Nortnem Queensland, Northern West Australia, and the Northern Territory have not proved suitable for a large white population, nevertheless enormous areas, mainly in the coastal are as healthy as any country in the world, and enjoy a beautiful climate and a rainfall sufficient, constitute the most sparsely-populated civilised country in the world. The report criticises the undue aggregation of population in the towns. The wheat areas are Enormous, but lacking in railways, the average acreage yielding fifty per cent, below Canada. Tho miner alogical potentialities are described aB enormous, par. ticularly in Queensland, which many believe will rank as first of the States mineralogically. New Zealand is described as a splendid agricultural country, another lintain of the Southern Seas. The soeiui, _ legislation and even distribution ot wealth in New Zealand is considered by the Commission to bo probably moio advanced than that in any part of the Empire. The principal recommendation or tho report is for tho creation of a permanent Imperial Development Board under the direction of a permanent Imperial Conference, comprising twolvo members intimately acquainted with the Empire, soven representing Britain, India, and tho Crown Colonies, and one for each of tho five Dominions, with headquarters in London, to make frequent Empiro peregrinations. Its mam functions would be to complete and continue the work begun by'thi* Dominions Commission in relation to the production and distribution of food and raw materials throughout tho Empire; scientific research; employment of Empire capital in tho development of Empire resources; emigration within the Empire; steamships, cables, and railways, in so far as they are contributory to Imperial development; legislation affecting trade, and the preparation of Imperial statistics, the board to bo purely advisory in its initial stages, and not to encroach, on tho political or administrative machinery of the selfgoverning Dominions; its principal duty to bo to initiate or report on schemes remitted by the Imperial Conference in participation with tho various Governments. . The Commission considers that intcrImperial communication demands vessels of greater draught and length, necessitating Che deepening of harbours on tho Suez, and Cape and Canadian , routes, notably at Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers. The provision of Australian dry docks is adequate except at Sydney. The shipping services will need reviewing in 1920, when tho Orient contract expires, with a view to securing eigh-teen-knot services landing mails at Adelaide in twenty-five days fourteen hours, via Suez, twenty-eight via tho Cape, and twenty-five to New Zealand via Halifax and Vancouver. Subsidised services must submit schedule freights to the Governments to obviate differential rates inimical to Imperial trade. The Commission recommends the creation of a central emigration board under British Governmental direction, with, a consultative board comprising Dominions' representatives. The Commission discountenances the emigration of soldiers without adequate capital and training, and urges increased female emigration to rodress the balance of the sexes.

it recommends the Government acquisition of the Atlantic cable and land lino via Nova Scotia and Montreal, connocting the Pacific, and afterwards reducing tho full rates to two shillings per word, deferred to Is, weekend messages sixpence, and Press messages correspondingly, assuming the abolition of the Commonwealth's unjustifiable terminal charge of fivepence. The Commission considers that the nationalisation of private cables is becoming an urgent problem of statesmanship, and endorses the views expressed by Sir Joseph Ward upon this question at the Imperial Conference in mi . , x . Other recommendations are the taking of a quinquennial census of tiie Empire; itinerant inter-Imperial exhibitions ; international exhibitions; unification of legislation regarding patents, trade marks, and companies, modification of the double income tax; establishment of uniform Imj>eriai decimal coinage, and of metric weight# and measures.