EMPIRE 69 



matter was fully investigated by the Dominions Royal 

 Commission, and as a result of their labour it is im- 

 possible now to doubt that in Canada and Australia 

 are to be found areas of cultivable land ample to supply 

 the needs of the United Kingdom. 



To deal with Canada first, the Commissioners found 

 there 330 milhon acres of cultivable land awaiting use. 

 Such a figure conveys very little to the mind ; but if we 

 observe that the belligerents on both sides in the late 

 war — the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Belgium 

 on the one side and Germany and Austria on the other — 

 had taken all together not such an area of cultivable 

 land with which to feed the 200 millions of their 

 inhabitants we shall have some conception of the 

 magnitude of the figure mentioned by the Commis- 

 sioners. This large area of land is situated not within 

 the arctic regions of Canada, but along the great belt 

 which now constitutes the granary of the Dominion. 



In Australia the Commissioners encountered a state 

 of things equally impressive ; they compute that the 

 land suitable there to a production of wheat amounts 

 to 200 million acres, of which only twelve and a half 

 millions are now producing this cereal. An area of land 

 so large as that is sufficient to provide the people of the 

 United Kingdom ten times over with their requirements 

 of wheat. 



As to New Zealand, the evidence given to the 

 Commissioners showed that there still remains in that 

 Dominion tracts of land which require only clearing to 

 add to the cultivation of the country. 



