PREMIERS' CONFERENCE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13104, 1 May 1908, Page 7

PREMIERS' CONFERENCE.

SECURITIES

United Press Association—Bf Electrio Telegraph—Copyright.

MELBOURNE, April 30. A)b iha Premiers' Conference it was resolved to favour tho abolitidn of stamp duties on all colonial Government securities, and. tha.t joint action •was desirable to .regulaite t<ho Australian Stock Exchange vrhxxri dealing with Govemimeanfc securities.

There are twenty-six subjects down for consideration at the Conference, and they include the most important State questions of tho day. Among these aro the Brad don clause, raising of loans in London, mutual services, transfer of Stat© properties, the Northern Territory, trans-Continental railway, the new protection, transfer of Stafco debts, immigration, Colonial Office reorganisation., and. commercial agencies abroad. Many of the questions have figured in tflie Conference agenda paper "ever since .tho Premiere first found it necessary to keep a watchful eye on the Commonwealth,", to quote the "Argus." Tho "Argus" thinks that business at tiho Conference may bo facilitated by tho recent F«tera2i crisis. "A leading advocate of State rights remeirked yesterday that tlio object-lesson of the crisis would be remembered by the Premiere, wiho, ho anticipated, would make a special effort to come to some arrangement on vexed questions which should have been disposed of years ago. The opportunity for coming to the most favourable ixnderstanddng with tho Commonwealth in Tespeet to several matters was rapidly disappearing, and during tli« i-econt Federal crisis one new Ministry was threatened, which, had, it been created, would have disposed oi the only chanoo the States ever had of secuiing treatraen-t on eeveraJ questions at aB in accordance with their undoubted rights."