ON COLONIAL INDUSTRIES.

F.-No. L

V

The correspondence appended to the report will explain under what circumstances this subject was brought under the notice of the Committee. Its importance can scarcely be overrated, and the Committee would be delighted if the success attendant upon taking the initiatory steps recommended should authorize the eventual establishment of similar educational appliances in all the Provincial centres. It appears to the Committee that the action to be taken by the Government should be only of the tentative character they recommend. 16. The Committee call special attention to the interesting communication from Messrs. Webley and Sons, cloth manufacturers, Nelson, and suggest that their recommendations should receive the careful consideration of the Government, more especially with a view to providing protection for Colonial trade marks. Your Committee feel that they have done little more than glance over the extensive subject of inquiry remitted to them. They have indicated the direction they think legislation should take, but they feel that any sweeping measures of legislation with a view to fostering Colonial industries and manufactures would be injurious to the best interests of the country, and prove eventually injurious to the very industries that it might be sought thus to promote. G. M. Watekhoitse, sth September, 1870. Chairman.