ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Monday, September 29, 1902. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE STATE LEGISLATURES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 227, 29 September 1902, Page 2

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Monday, September 29, 1902. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE STATE LEGISLATURES.

« Mr Philp, the Premier of Queensland, is very bitter against the Federal Government, and alleges his conviction that were a poll taken in his colony there would be an overwhelming vote in favor of Queensland retiring from the Commonwealth. Furthermore, he declares that a similar feeling is very prevalent in New South Wales, and alarm is expressed in certain quarters in Australia lest the dissatisfac tion voiced by Mr Philp and others may have some very awkward results. Primarily, Queensland's dissatisfaction arises from the "White Australia" policy inaugurated by Sir Edward Barton ; and no doubt there is much to be said in favor of the contention that certain Queensland industries can only be carried on by means of colored labor. But the Labor Party in Queensland is just as strongly in favor of Sir Edward Barton's policy as -Mr Philp is opposed to it; and we may take with considerable reserve the latter's declaration thafc Queenslander3 are practically unanimous in their opposition to Federal rule. We are much more inclined to think that both in Queensland and New South Wales the discontent with the Commonwealth Government arises from financial causes, and has been largely added to of late by the Federal tariff bill. The State politicians also see standing out in the immediate future a very widespread and determined demand on the part of the people for a reduction in heavy cost of the State Governments. Now that federation is accomplished and the Federal Government alone deals with a vast mass of legislative work formerly done by the various State Governments, the necessity of maintaining the State legislatures on the old (present) extensive and very costly footing no longer exists. Consequently there is growisg into existence, not only in Queensland, New South Wales, but also in Victoria and South Australia, a very influential agitation for a reduction in the number

of the State members and in the cost of the various State civil services, tfc is, we believe, the State member and the State civil servant who are raising the standard of revolt against the Federal Government, and we are by no means inclined to believe that the people as a whole are either disappointed or dissatisfied with the Commonwealth. If there really is intense dissatisfaction among tho people (not merely the politicians) then perhaps trouble is looming ahead, but up to the present there is no proof. And, be it remembered, it will be no easy task to upset the Commonwealth constitution now it has once been brought into existence. If the Federal Parliament is proving expensive, the cry of the true reformer will be, we fancy, that the State Parliaments (most of whose most valuable functions are discharged by the Federal Parliament) shall be reduced to onechamber Parliaments of not more than thirty to forty members, and that the whole State-governing machinery shall be proportionately cut down, as being now comparatively useless. The enormous debt, per head, of Australia, as announced by Sir George Turner, the Federal Treasurer, the other day, renders it imperative that there must be retrenchment, and this is precisely what the State politician is at present desperately afraid of being insisted upon by the Federal Government.