THE FEDERATION QUESTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1291, 26 November 1896, Page 36

THE FEDERATION QUESTION.

Sydney, November 22. The Federal Convention has closed. The following scheme of finance was adopted :-- That the Customs and excise duties and post office receipts should form part of the Federal revenue. That the cost of Federal Government, defence, ocean buoys, lighthouses and quarantine be charged to each State on a population basis. In place of the clause in the Bill dealing with the apportionment of the 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 Commonwealth, should be charged against the State after all the revenue derived from other services 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 be returned to each State. That if the whole debts of the colonies be taken over unconditionally, the railways should be vested in a Federal Parliament. The majority favoured the taking over of the whole of the liabilities of a 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 Reid, Premier of New South Wales, visits Queensland next week to try to induce the Government to have that colony represented at the coming Convention. The Bathurst Convention has adopted a strong appeal to the Queensland Government to be represented at the Statutory Convention, as otherwise no Federation Avill be complete.