THE COMMONWEALTH

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11591, 18 July 1900, Page 3

THE COMMONWEALTH

ME DEAKIN'S VIKWS. Beoeired Jnly 17, 9.10 a.m. Adelaide, Tuesday. Mr Deakin, the returning Victorian . * Federal delegate, Bays that the GovernorGeneral (Lord Hopetonn) will come oat with a free hand in the matter of seleotingj the Federal Premier. Hia own opinion is that Mr Barton will be the most likely candidate. Mr Deakin says that the appointment of Governor-General was considered to be between Lord Hopetoun and Lord Jersey, bat there were doubts as to whether the latter would be able to accept a second term, in Australia. Though personally satisfied with the amendment made in the bill, Mr Deakih thought the measure should not have been altered at all. He declined to be drawn as to whether Mr Chamberlain was as sympathetic toward Australian aspirations as he should be. He found him exceedingly well informed, but in the negotiations with the Federal delegates he had always had a phalanx of lawyers to back him up. The delegates quite realised from the first that it was from members of the legal profession that the bulk of the opposition to the appeal clauses came. He oould give no reason for that except patriotism. Still, he might mention, without any particular bearing oc the matter, that if appeals to the Privy Council were abolished, it would mean a loss of nearly .£30,000 a year in fees to the legal profession in Great Britain. That was not much, however, measured by the total legal receipts in the Old Country, and he need hardly say that this motive never weighed with the Imperial Government.