FEDERAL CONVENTION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 6871, 22 April 1897, Page 3

FEDERAL CONVENTION.

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (PER PStTED PRESS ASSOCtATtON".) Keceived April 22. at 10.3D a.in Adelaide. April 22. With the exception of one or two postponed clauses the financial section of the Commonwealth Bill is finished. Mr Keid has returned to Sydney to prepare for the opening of Parliament. Several other delegates have left for home. Received Auril at 10 ->') a.m. Ai'f.LAit'E, April 22. Whether the Commonwealth should or should not take over public debts greatly exercised the committee. The Bill provides the optional taking over of trie debts, or any part of a debt, of any bcate wich the consent of its Parliament. j Messrs Turner and Downer wished the whole debt to bo taken instead of a selection being permissible. _ Ultimately it was decided to give the Federal Parliament power to take_any debt without obtaining the consent ot the local Parliament. Received April at 2.15 p.m. Aw:r. vtn:--. April 22 The Convention'-? address to the fjueen expressed a hope that the federation of the Australian colonies would be a lasting monument of the sixtieth year of her rei"n. Members are beginning to drift homewards. Another detachment leaves to-day The work of the Convention will probably conclude to-night or to-morrow. A hitch has nver_ the arrangement to adjourn till May o'h. The tic* that Mr Kingston would nave leit tor England before that date was overlooked, and it is, therefore, impossible to meet and adjourn in the absence oi the President.