DR. BEVAN ON THE PREMIERS' CONFERENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 31, 7 February 1899, Page 5

DR. BEVAN ON THE PREMIERS' CONFERENCE.

Interviewed by a representative of the Dunedin Star, the Rev. Dr, Bevan, a well known Victorian publicist, as well as eloquent preacher, now on his first visit to New Zealand, said, when asked to state his views on the New South Wales amendments to the Federal Bill : —"I have taken great interest in Federation. I joined the party largely in the initial work of preparing the Victorian people for the Federation question — and I think that the work of instruction done by our Federation League helped very largely to secure victory. New South Wales was not so well prepared, and the raising of the minimum number to 80,000 seemed to be a move on the part of the anti-Federa-tionists which would have been impossible with us in Victoria. I do not think that the argument urged in New South Wales that that province had so much to lose and so little to gain compared with the other colonies was worthy of the weight attached to it in the Mother Colony. I believe that Premier Reid is sincerely anxious for Fedenation, but he has allowed consideration of tiis own Party's position to weigh, too largely — though I would not chaige him with a conscious weakening of the Federal interest on this account — he has felt the leadership of the subject somewhat slipping from his hands, and he was willing to allow matters so to shape themselves that they might return, as they have done, more directly into his control. A great chance has now presented itself to the Premiers. It was proposed to take Federation out of the hands of politicians and put it in the power of the people directly. It has now come back for guidance and completion by the gentlemen now in conference in Melbourne, and I think hopefully of the future of the movement, for those who maintained the equal force of the Second Chamber in regard to the 'question of deadlocks may be willing to yield to the apparently more democratic method of a comoined vote, although really that seems to me to be a less democratic form of action than that which is contained in the Bill. The so-called 'Braddon Blot' is a mere method of dealing with a difficulty which the Federal Parliament, when once constituted, can easily manage. I presume that Sydney's claim for the capital will be a difficulty, but, if New South Wales will agree to turn the territory of the capital into a Federal district it may be accepted. I think many of the leading Federationists in Victoria would be willing to yield to thds claim of S.ydney if thereby Federation can be secured, for it must be remembered that the capital is not necessarily the metropolis, and the rivalry for the metropolitan city is not yet concluded. Of late Sydney has been outstripped by Melbourne, but, as I pointed out to the Sydney people in my Federation campaign there, the then-existent relation of the colonies might change. I hardly realised that so soon Victoria would again present the position of a paying and prosperous State, which is her present 'condition, while New South Wales is feeling some of the heavy burdens of her condition."