IMPERIAL CONFERENCE RECEIVES THE REPORTS OF SUB-COMMITTEES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18008, 19 November 1926, Page 9

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE RECEIVES THE REPORTS OF SUB-COMMITTEES.

WIDE SCOPE COVERED IN RECOMMENDATIONS. By Teleirarh. —Press Assn.— Copyrisht. Aus. and X.Z. Cable Association. (Received November 19, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, November IS. The Imperial Conference forestry sub committee's report suggests the development of settlement schemes in connection with afforestation. The sub-committee welcomed the Australian Government’s invitation to hold the third Forestry Conference there in 1925, and recommended active preparation for and participation therein to the Governments of the Empire. The sub-committee referred the constitution of the Empire Forestry Bureau to the conference. An appendix to the report emphasised the importance of the continuous production of timber and drew attention to the possibilities of settling forest workers on agricultural land sufficient to occupy them when silvicultural work slackened. The report urged the classification of forest and agricultural lands and the management of forests for continuance production, the proper distribution, planting and thinning. the selection of suitable men, reasonable equipment and holdings. The economic sub-committee dealing with uniform taxation of the enterprises of foreign Governments quoted the Australian and New Zealand delegates’ announcement that their Governments accepted the principle of taxation of Government trading enterprises, the existing law providing sufficient authority for the necessary assessments. The Commonwealth Government, however, is unable to bind the States. The sub-committee considered that a true measure of inter-imperial agreement warranted negotiating with foreign Governments with a view to concluding reciprocal agreements for mutual taxation of their trading enterprises. Regarding the taxation of non-resi-dent traders, the economic sub-commit-tee reported that it was desirable to divide the manufacturing and merchanting profits, restricting the income tax charges in the country of sale to the merchanting profit. The same committee, dealing with Mr Bruce’s suggestion for surveys of Empire trade, stressed the advantages of such surveys and reviewed existing publications on the subject, and urged that each survey should deal with one trade or group of allied trades as concisely as possible, systematically condensing reports and avoiding duplication of effort. This will probably necessitate the creation of a statistical conference.