Natural Resources of the Dominions
In regard to agricultural matters we gathered and published much information, finding that in one part or other of the Dominions all animals and almost every crop flourished that are needed by man, that if the products of the more tropical parts of the Empire were taken into account, the Empire could meet more than its own needs; and that if men existed in sufficient numbers in our Dominions, there was scarcely any limit to the external trade they could do. In this part of our Inquiry we found to what a considerable extent people concentrated in large cities to the detriment of the country districts. “Back to the land” is a question there of as much if not greater moment than in the Mother Country. The mineral resources of the Dominions, like the agricultural, provided us with a big subject. In every Province or State, by oral evidence, by official statistics, by discussion with Government geologists, officials of the Mines Departments and others, we gathered a large amount of valuable information. The volumes of printed evidence give full particulars of this and other subjects. The mineral deposits of Canada especially are varied in character and large in respect both of quantity and value—gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, coal,
iron, asbestos, natural gas, petroleum, peat, gypsum—all are found in unstinted quantity. Nor are the other Dominions deficient. The goldfields of Australia are historic, and the silver, lead and zinc mines of Broken Hill deserve particular mention. In South Africa gold and diamonds are plentiful; and Newfoundland has wonderful deposits of iron ore.
In forests and fish the Dominions abound, and possess enormous possibilities of extended trade.