DOMINIONS COMMISSION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9600, 5 March 1917, Page 6

DOMINIONS COMMISSION

CANADIAN SECTION EMIGRATION AND LAND PROBLEMS. By Telegraph—Press Association—^Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON. March 2. The Dominions Commission report on Canada states that there, is a strong undercurrent of opposition to emigration to Canada as now carried on, particularly among the wage-earners ini cities. The Commission agrees that the objection to creating surplus labour in cities is well founded. Too much attention hitherto has been devoted to attracting immigrants and too little attention to equipping them. The report emphasises the growing shortage of agricultural land available for settlement in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. If the demand for land after the war is equal to that of before the war it will exhaust the available Government land within four years. The subsidising of steamship services by the New Zealand Government had considerably assisted Canadian trade. It was regrettable that British shipping companies in Canada sometimes charge lower freights on foreign goods than British goods in the same ship and travelling longer distances. The Imperial Government should impose control of rates upon cable companies before renewing the landing licenses. The existing press rates between Canada and the United Kingdom were over-high compared with the Anglo-Australian press rates. The Canadian newspapers, the Government, and cable companies should organise the press service. The Commission was greatly interested in Mr Conley’s suggestion, made at Winnipeg, that the Australian and Canadian newspapers should unite in a new Service which the Australian Press Association should supply Australian and Nqw Zealand newspapers.

The Commission deals with the Statecontrolled Atlantic cable in its next report.