THE HOBART CONFERENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10303, 10 March 1905, Page 1

THE HOBART CONFERENCE.

TACT OF MR G. H. REID. The Post's Melbourne correspondent writes: — "The Hobart conference is destined to be more productive of good than .was anticipated! by the most optimistic. It wiw feared! that tJie strong feeling which does assuredly exist iv the States against the Com man wealth would be a Jbaf to any successful outcome. The Premiers, too, were not anxious to hide the fact that they would attend 1 the conference as biassed! and prejudiced criics of the Commcmwealh. Had this state of things remained' so, very little benefit would have occurred, but as it has transpired a change for the better has come, and the state of harmony which exists lias greatlj-jjfoiproved the outlook. Undoubtedly the sol© cause of this improved feeling is the tact of the Prime Minister, Mr G. H. Reid. No matter how strongly his opponents may decry his political ideas, andi how fiercely they may disagree with bis government, they nevertheless have always to acknowledge his courtesy and unfailing good' humor. No man can hit harder hi deoate^ nor be less impervious to the shots of his opponents. He always is at hi s best m the sharpest of debates, and though his powers of repartee are perhaps the great, est m the Commonwealth Parliament, he so uses them that at the conclusion of a debate lue- lias made no personal enemy. He i s ore the most friendly terms with all the legislators except Sir William Lyne, between whom and himself an irreconcilable breach exists which neither exerts any effort to conceal, and; it is only when answering Sir William Lyne that the Prime Minister's repartee is* of an- acrimonious nature. This power of good humor aikl felicity has done much during the present conference of Premiers to bridge some of the gaps that exist between State and! Commonwealth. The press has been rigorously excluded from the sittings, but the report which/ will be issued will contain the conclusions of the conference on the various questions which it discussed."