In New Zealand we travelled through the island from south to north, staying in that beautiful country for nearly a month, and holding sittings in the principal cities.  One sitting we held in the train—­a record surely for a Royal Commission.  Easter intervening, we indulged in a few days’ holiday in the wonderful Rotorua district, where we enjoyed its hot springs, its geysers, its rivers, its lakes and its Maori villages.  Returning to Sydney, we travelled northwards to Queensland and there entered seriously upon our Australian duties, holding sittings at Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth.  In Queensland we penetrated north as far as Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton and Mount Morgan.  In the other States tours were made through the irrigation areas of New South Wales and Victoria, and visits paid to the mines at Broken Hill (New South Wales), the Zeehan district and Mount Lyall (Tasmania); Iron Knob (South Australia), and Kalgoorlie (Western Australia).  Some of our party penetrated to remoter parts of Australia such as Cairns (Northern Queensland), Condobolin (west of New South Wales), and Oodnadatta (Central Australia), still the furthest point of railway extension toward the great Northern Territory.

To Tasmania we were able to devote a few days, taking evidence and enjoying its wonderful beauty.

Finally, we left Australia on the 9th of June, four months after our first landing on its sunny shores.

On arriving home it was determined that for the remainder of the year 1913 we should remain in England and take further evidence in London.

We resumed our travels in January, 1914, when we left for South Africa.  There we held a number of sittings, taking evidence at Capetown, Oudtshoorn, Port Elizabeth, East London, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg.  Our journeys to these various places were so planned as to involve our travelling over most of the principal railway lines of the Union, so that we were able to see a considerable portion of its beautiful scenery as well as its great mining and pastoral industries.  Our work finished, most of us returned direct to England, but some were able to penetrate northwards into Rhodesia, and return by way of the East Coast of Africa.

It was our intention, after taking further evidence in London, to proceed to Canada and Newfoundland, and to return home before the winter began, when we looked forward to making our Final Report.  This intention we partially fulfilled, as in July, 1914, we sailed from Liverpool, and after exchanging steamers at Rimouski, landed at St. John’s, Newfoundland.  There we stayed for a few days whilst the crisis in Europe deepened.  We then travelled through the island by railway and crossed to the Maritime Provinces of Canada.  On that fatal day in August on which war broke out we were in Nova Scotia.  A few days after, the British Government, considering that under