FEDERAL CONVENTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11122, 23 November 1896, Page 5

FEDERAL CONVENTION.

TPer Press Association.] SYDNEY, Nov 22,

The Federal Convention has closed. The following scheme of finance was adopted:— That Customs and excise duties and Post Office receipts should form part of the federal revenue, and that the cost of the federal government, defence, ocean buoys, lighthouses and quarantine should be charged to each State on a population basis. In place of the clause in the Bill dealing with the apportionment of surplus revenue, two new clauses have been recommended, to the effect that, pending the establishment of a federal tariff, the expenditure, of which each State has been relieved, and which has been paid by the Commonweath, should be charged against the State after all revenue derived from services other than those of a purely federal character has been taken over, and after the expenditure incurred thereon in each State has been ascertained the surplus shall bo returned to each State; and that if the whole debts of the colonies should be taken over unconditionally the railways should be vested in the Federal Parliament. The majority favoured taking over the whole liabilities of the State, against which each State would be charged interest and also that the Federal Government should take over the whole of the railways, and that each State should be charged with any deficiency or credited with any profits that might accrue. Mr Eeid will visit Queensland next week to induce the Government to have that colony represented at the forthcoming Convention.