The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1891.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 80, 6 April 1891, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1891.

Tor tho cum that lacks assistance, For the wroiib that nesds resistance, for the future In the dlatanco, And tho good that -we can do.

The Federal question has reached the crucial point in the Convention. Ac. cording to our cable summary on Saturday, many of the delegates from the smaller colonies are unwilling to accept the compromise proposed by the Committee, and embodied in the Draft Bill, with regard to the powers of the Senate over money Bills. This has throughout been the sticking pomt j giving rise to even more serious conflict than the tariff.

. The division over this question is already being accepted as significant of the rival parties that will arise after the Federal Government is set up. On the one side stand New South Wales and Victoria ; on the other all the smaller colonies. The latter are unanimous in demanding that the Senate's power to deal with money Bills in detail shall be fully recognised, although they express their willingness to leave the sole right to initiate financial measures in the hands of the House of Representatives. They argue that this restriction would meet the objection raised by those who maintain that to give the Senate power over money Bills would violate the principle of representative control over taxation. In Tasmania the Legislative Council now has power to amend money Bills, and the system is said to work very well. In the United States the Senate's powers are co-ordinate with those of the House of Representatives in financial as well as in other legislative matters. A majority of the delegates representing Victoria and New South Wales, however, are unyielding, and a great part o< four days' sittings of the Constitutional Committee was absorbed in futile efforts to bring about an acceptable compromise. Indeed, a deadlock might have occurred but for the attitude of Mr Gillies, ex-Premier of Victoria, who, although siding in the main with those who desired to place the Senate upon the same footing as the Legislative Councils in a majority of the colonies with respect to money Bills, yet took Sir Henry Parkes to task for adopting an uncompromising and dogmatic tone, which, if persisted in, would destroy all chance of bringing the labours of the Convention to a successful termination. Mr McMillan, Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales, also spoke earnestly and effectively in favour of compromise.

Several courses were suggested for the purpose of settling disputes between the two Houses over any items struck out of a money Bill by the Senate. Those acceptable to the smaller colonies were—a joint sitting of the two Houses, a double dissolution, or direct submission of the question in dispute to popular vote. The clauses finally agreed to by the Committee and embodied in the Bill withhold absolutely from the Senate power to amend any law imposing taxation or appropriating any necessary supplies for the ordinary annual services of the Government. These it must accept or reject as a whole. In order to give the Senate a voice in laige financial questions, however, the Federal Bill provides that laws imposing taxation, except laws imposing duties of Customs on imports, shall deal with one subject of taxation only. Expenditure for services other than ordinary annual services of the Government shall not be authorised by the same law as that which appropriates supplies for such ordinary anaual services, but shall be authorised by separate law or laws. In the case of a proposed law which the Senate may not amend, the Senatt may at any stage return it to the House with a message requesting the omission or amendment of any items or provisions therein, and the House i,>av, if it think fit, make such omissions or

amendments, or adopt any of them, with or without modifications, as are lawful for the House to pass.

These provisions seem to contain a very fair basis of settlement, but it is evident from the discussion at the last sitting of the Convention that some of the delegates from the smaller colonies are not prepared to accept it, while Mr Munro, Premier of Victoria, declared emphatically that the proceedings had now reached a point when the Convention was calied upon to decide whether they were to have federation or not. Various amendments have been submitted, and the events of the next day or two will be watched with the deepest interest by all who have followed the labours o( this important deliberative body.

One of the chief reasons why the smaller colonies have stood out so stoutly for a strong Senate is the overwhelming power of the two large colonies in the House of Representatives, their joint representation amounting to considerably more than one halt the entire House. Now, although in many matters the smaller States may come in as adjustors of the rivalries of the two great colonies—as, for example, in the location of the Federal capital—there are measures upon which Victoria and New South Wales might unite to the disadvantage of the smaller colonies. Their limited coastline will impose a smaller burden upon the Federal funds for defence than colonies like New Zealand, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, and if the policy of the representative Chamber were dominated by a provincial spirit instead of a broad nationalism, the interests of the smaller colonies might suffer. Reliance is placed upon a strong Senate, with an equal number of representatives from each colony, to act as the bulwark of Stale rights.

The point is an exceedingly interesting one. On broad constitutional grounds there can be no question that the assertion made by Victoria and New South Wales that the people must retain absolute control over the supplies of the Government, is thoroughly sound. On the other hand, the Senate under the Federal Constitution will be essentially different from a nominee body. Its members are to be elected for a term of six years by the local parliaments. Half of the Senators will retire every three years, so that this branch of the legislature, although not directly elected by the people, will be representative in its character, a fact which warrants its endowment with larger powers than could be safely entrusted to a nominee Chamber. Still, malting due allowance for this fact, it is pushing State rights too far to contend that seven delegates, representing 45,000 people in Western Australia, shall have an equal voice with the delegates from Victoria or New South Wales, each section representing a million and a quarter of people, in imposing taxation. We do not see how it is possible for the two populous colonies to give way much more than they have done, and il the smaller colonies prove obdurate, the labours of the Convention will be brought to naught.