H.—lB,

goods of this nature unbranded should be liable to seizure and destruction by the Customs officials. The brand " Guaranteed leather " should not be permitted unless the articles are exactly as described. (d.) The duties on boots, shoes, and slippers, if retained, require amending, and a uniform ad valorem tariff substituted for the present one, which penalizes the masses and deals lightly with the wealthier classes. 7. Land and Rent. — (a.) That in the opinion of the Commission such a land policy is required as will break down land-monopoly in town and country. We believe that this will be best accomplished by such a taxation of land-values as shall secure to the State a portion of the value created by the State whilst guaranteeing to the landowner the full fruits of his own industry, and to ensure to the community the most economical distribution of the fund thus built up.* (6.) To overcome the lack of housing for families in the country districts the Commission suggests, — (i.) The provision of small holdings sufficiently large to enable the holder and his family to live independent of outside employment if necessary, (ii.) The extension of village settlements in proximity to towns. The Commission believes that these remedies will tend to relieve (a) unemployment in the cities ; (6) shortage of labour in the country ; will (c) increase the productivity of land ; (d) and raise the physical and ethical standard of the nation. In this connection we would quote from a summary of the advantages of small holdings as set forth by the British Commission on Small Holdings, 1906 : " Small holdings, and even allotments, increase the number of people who are working in the open air with their heads and their hands : they give to the agricultural labourer a stepping-stone upwards, prevent him from being compelled to leave agriculture to find some scope for his ambition, and thus check the great evil of the continued flow of the ablest and bravest farm lads to the towns. They break the monotony of existence, they give a healthy change from indoor life, they offer scope of variety of character and for the play of fancy and imagination in the arrangement of individual life ; they afford a counter-attraction to the grosser and baser pleasures ; they often enable a family to hold together that would otherwise have to separate ; under favourable conditions they improve considerably the material condition of the worker ; and they diminish the fretting as well as the positive loss caused by the inevitable interruptions of their ordinary work." (c.) The Commission recommends that the workers' homes schemes should be extended for the purpose of coping to some extent with the increasing rents paid in the cities. (d.) The Commission recommends that, in the interests of settlement and the profitable use of land, the Government should pass a Compulsory Utilization of Lands Act providing that all persons who own land shall, after a stated time, show that the land is being properly utilized for bona fide settlement, such penal conditions to be imposed as shall give effect to the foregoing legislation. (c.) The Commission recommends that the Government should give country settlers every facility for obtaining (i) better communication, including good roads, freight-trolly lines, and telephone services ; (ii) maternity nurses ; as these things are all calculated to make rural life more desirable and rural industries more efficient. 8. Immigration. —ln the opinion of your Commissioners New Zealand is an under-populated country. We have vast areas of valuable land lying idle and unproductive. The lands which are already in occupation are not producing all that is possible for them to produce. We have mineral resources only partially developed, and many of our manufacturing industries are hampered and checked in their growth from want of workers. This want appears to be growing more acute every day, and the evidence tendered on this point to your Commissioners was most convincing.

Land taxation.

Rural housing. Small holdings.

Village settlements.

Workers' Dwellings Act.

Utilization of land.

Encouraging country settlers.

Immigration.

* See reservations on pages xovii and xoviii, by Dr. Hight, Mr. Fairbairn, Mr. Hail, aud Mr. Leadley.

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