FEDERAL FINANCES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 305, 18 September 1908, Page 7

FEDERAL FINANCES.

V STATES' CLAIMS. A CRITICAL PERIOD REACHED. ;.. PREMIERS' CONFERENCE.' JBT TELEGE'APH—PKESS ASSOCIATION —COPTEIGST.) Sydnoy, September 17. 'In the State Assembly, Mr.' Wade, the Premier, asked the House >to adopt resolutions embodying the decisions arrived at by the Conference of Premiers, regarding the financial relations of the ; States and /tho '. Commonwealth. . . r " '' 'In the course of a lengthy explanation, Mr. "Wade said one of ' the - most critical ' periods in the history .of ••tho States and the Commonwealth,had been reached. The debate was adjourned. THE STATES' INTEREST IN REVENUE • INCREASES. Some of the main points of the decisions ar- ' rived at by the Conference of Premiers are that, in any rearrangement, the States should receive not only a fixed annual sum, hut a proportionate part of all future increases of r revenue from Customs and excise;, that the ■ States 'should be the sole judgesas to ; the raising of their : loans, without interference from the proposed Council of Finance; and that the Commonwealth should not take over the sinking funds ,of the States without com- • P Those Ol decisions of the Premiers' Conference - were in the way of amendment of the Federal Government's scheme for taking over the State .. debts. That same scheme was recently criti- ' oised at length by the Auditor-General of New ' South Wales, Mr. Vernon. The Sydney Nornning Herald," in editorially reviewing Mr. Vernon's report, remarks: ■■■: ; "It is, impossible to even guess at wliat the revenue will be thirty years hence, and therefore whatever arrangement is come : to ■ something in the nature of a periodic review is. •: essential. . Admittedly the problem of the right : adjustment of Federal and State finance is the most ■■ difficult ,we have to face, and it has been quite neellessly complicated by Sir \\ ll- ' liam Lyne, who insists on bracketing together the distribution of surplus revenue, and ■ the ' ■ " taking over of • State debts —two matters_ that ■ really have little in common. /-The last is the attractive bait intended to disguise the real meaning of the first lalf of the^ proposition; but the criticism of the Auditor-General is an '• official justification for all that has been said to the disadvantage of Sir William Lynes.pro"According to the scheme, treasurers of to- • day will .receive''a .smaller cash return,'but . . from 1915 onward they will be lelieved of the ; burden of State debts to the extent of more . ; than .£244,00,000. Also, the Commonwealth is ; 'ready to tako over old-age pensions and various services. On the surface the deal looks fair. But the whole point is, that whereas the , 'money value of what the Commonwealth offers ' ' can be pretty accurately determined, the money ''• ralue of what the States ( are asked to sur- ' . render can simply not be determined at all. 1 ■" The financial, relations of Commonwealth and : State-must be determined in some way that ■ makes equitable allowance for the increase in revenue:that must surely ccme."