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the Department without compensation to the grantee. Obviously these stringent terms and the double charge constitute an imposition upon trade which operates against the development of many concerns. Under proper' conditions and with due regard to traffic needs, the Department should be directed to afford every facility to trade and commerce in harmonizing the railway system with the Dominion's needs. Main Traffic-roads. The advent of the self-propelled vehicle has introduced new conditions into the reading problem. Not only does this vehicle add to the wear-and-tear of the ordinary roads, but it has had the effect of enormously increasing the distance from which through traffic comes, with a consequent large increase in the volume of such traffic and in the cost of maintenance. The old type of road is unequal to the strain, and with the number of motors ever increasing the problem has become acute, and a remedy is imperative. The Committee was impressed by what had been done in the formation of tar-sealed roads in the Provincial District of Taranaki, which has provided an object-lesson for the rest of New Zealand. If is clear that a new type of road, as distinct from the ordinary macadam road, is required. It is not equitable that the whole cost of either construction or maintenance of such roads should fall on the local authority through whose district they run. The Committee recommends — (1.) That the Government formulate a comprehensive scheme to deal with this question, and such scheme shall include (a) the classification of the main traffic-roads ; (b) State assistance, the amount to depend on the classification ; (c) provision to ensure that such assistance shall be used for- the improvement of the main traffic-roads. Subsidies. (2.) That an alteration be made in the basis on which subsidies are paid to local authorities from the Consolidated Fund. Under the present system a subsidy of 10s. in the pound is provided where the total sum raised in rates does not exceed £1,000, and a subsidy of ss. in the pound where the rates exceed that sum but do not exceed £.10,000. In counties where the rates exceed £10,000 no subsidy is payable in respect of rates raised over that sum. This is an inducement to cut large counties into small ones so as to obtain a subsidy on all the rates, and also to discourage a county from levying a rate which would produce more than £10,000. A uniform subsidy should be paid on all rates raised, without any limitation as regards total amount or amount of rate, so that the larger the amount raised in rates the larger the subsidy received. Toll-gates. (3.) That on these proposals being given effect to it shall not be lawful for any local authority to establish any toll-gate, and all toll-gates then existing shall be abolished ; and that section 5 of the Counties Amendment Act, 1915, and all by-laws made under that section, be repealed. In urging the roads question upon the attention of the Government it may be pointed out that few things contribute more to the amenities of country life than good roads. Fertilizers. Phosphates. Supplies of manures at cheap rates are absolutely essential to an increase in production, and the recent announcement of the acquisition by New Zealand of an interest in the ex-German, now British, island of Nauru will be received with satisfaction by the farming community, as this island has large deposits of phosphatic