DOMINIONS ROYAL COMMISSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16963, 27 March 1917, Page 4

DOMINIONS ROYAL COMMISSION

THE EMPIRE'S POTENTIALTnES. STEPS FOR DEVELOPMENT. BETTER HARBOUR ACCOMMODATION. QUICKER MAIL SERVICES. Press Association—By Telegraph.—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, March. 25. The Dominions Koyal Commission, in its final and unanimous report, covering a live years' investigation, states that the commission visited every capital of'.every, State and province in tne hye dominions,' held 160 sittings, and examined «50 witTne report acknowledges indebtedness lor the assistance of Mr Knibbs, Go-i vernment Statistician; during their Australian tour, and of Mr Malcolm Ross in New Zealand. Reviewing the dominions seriatim, the report inierentially favours the existing developmant of the potentialities of Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Newfoundland in the order named. The Australian interior is largely waterless, and impossible for settlement,, while Northern Queensland, northern Westralia, and the .Northern Territory have not proved l suitable for ■ carrying a large white population. Never-; theless, enormous areas, mainly in. thoj coastal belt are as healthy as any country in the world, possess a beautiful climate, and the rainfall is sufficient. Yet Australia is the most sparsely-populated of any civilised country in the world. The commission criticises the undue aggregation of population in the Australian towns. The wheat areas are enormous, but are lacking in railways, and the average yield per acre is 50 per cent, below that of Canada. The mineralogical potentialities of Australia are enormous, particularly those of Queensland, which many of the commissioners believe to rank first of all the States mineralogically. New Zealand is described as a splendid agricultural country—another Britain of tho.- Southern Seas. Jn social legislation and the even distribution of wealth NewZealand is probably more advanced than, any part of the Empire. ■ The principal recommendation in. tihe report is the creation of a permanent Imperial Development Board, under the direction, of a permanent Imperial Conference, comprising "12 members intimately acquainted with the Empire—seven representing Britain, India, and the_ Crown colonies, and one representative for each of the five dominions—with 'headquarters in London, but to make- frequent Empire peregrinations. This board's -main functions would be to complete and. continue me work begun by the commission in re-, gard to the relation of the production and distribution of food aud raw materials throughout the Empire, ■ scientific research, fhe employment of the Empire's capital in the development of Empire resources, emi- 1 gratidn within the Empire,' steamships, cables, and: railways' in so far as these are contributory to Imperial development, legislation affecting trade, and the preparation of Imperial/ statistics. This board would be purely advisory in its initial stages, and must not'encroach on the political or administrative machinery of the' self-governing dominions. Its principal duty would be to initiate or report on schemes remitted by the Imperial Conference in participation .with the .various (■Governments concerned.

\ Inter-Imperial communication demands ' vessels of greater, draught and length, necessitating the deepening of harbours oa tihe Suez, Gape of Good Hope, and Canadian routes, notably those at Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers. The Australasian system of dry docks is inadequate except at Sydney.- • Shipping services will nsed reviewing in , 1920, when tlhe Orient Company's 'contract expires, with a view to* securing 18-knot services, landing British mails at Adelaide in 25 days 14 hours via Suez, in 28 days via the Cape, and in 25 days in New Zealand via tbe Halifax-Vancouver (transCanadian) route. •

Subsidised services must submit a schedule of freights to the various Governments concerned, so as to obviate differential rates inimical to Imperial trade. The commission recommends the creation of a Central Emigration Board, under British Governmental direction, with a connltative board comprising the dominions' representatives. The commission discountenances soldiers' emigration without adequate capital and training, but urges increased female' emigration u> redress the balance of the sexes.

The report recommends the Government acquisition of the Atlantic cable and of the land line fromXNova Scotia to Montreal connecting with the Pacific .cable, and thereby reducing the charges for messages as follows:—Full rates, 2s a,, word; deferred, Is; -week-end, 6di; the press rates to be correspondingly reduced,\ this being based on the' assumption of the abolition of the commonwealth's "unjustifiable terminal charge" of 5d per word. The nationalisation of private, cables is becoming an urgent problem of statesmanship. The commission endorses Sir Joseph, Ward's views on tikis subject, voiced at the Imperial Conference of 1911. Other recommendations are :—A qrrinquennial census of the Empire; niterImperial itinerant exhibitions, and an international exhibition. •

Unification of the legislation affecting patents, trade-marks, and companies. Modification of the double incdme tax.

Uniform Imperial decimal coinage, and metric -weights and measures.