THE FEDERATION CONVENTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2356, 30 March 1897, Page 3

THE FEDERATION CONVENTION.

Pjbb Electric Tblbqraph— Copybio^t, ■■'-'■ : P»b Pbbss Association*^ > „ ; . Adbi^aidb, March 29., : The residents of Wentworth, a small town on the Murray, petitioned the Convention . modestly setting , forth Wentworth's claim to be the federal Capital, ; , .;; ..-.vs.. „-.- ■-w .•;!■,)■.;•■ '': ' Mr. Forrest, Perth, gave nptice m favour of ,. the House going into-Com-mittee on the Bill of 1891. He moved th,e ' adjournment m pider >to urge the Cpnyentipn, to expedite the , business. He objected to the niocie. of procedure. The iPertti delegatea 'were bound- to leave Adelaide on April., s£th.'. ," v . . „•;„',... : .; Mr I?eacpcl£ thougty that, the 'Craven* tipn should ! immediately r ge;fe. to. work and draft the Bill, tt ,wa§ i highly (mpojrtant fchst the Gpnstiijutipri J sHpuld; b]e ''framed' before the [ left on iiieir'y^sit to ' England. 7. '/.'■' ,..'.', .^",, , After a alight discussion the motion wasiosVv "' .' - _'" ''„. -"" ._ . . ; ■ Continuing the debate on Mr Barton's resolutions, Sir J. Downer said that he had arrived at the conclusion that the Senate, must be elected directly from the people^, which would alone prevent unsatisfactory expedients to obtain jthe y6ice of the people when .'difficulties ,%o'se I . ; .'^,it '..Was' absurd to aay.that there ,cp t uid ,be r^np , responsible. \ government;.; There' myjst b^ responsibility someone.. Jt.migh^ be to onepr.both Houses, $vi they ' couloi '._ppt exist without ; being respbpsible to someone. The very es-i sence pf respbnsibiiity was pprn m democratic communities. He thought that.it would have been vrell if the resolutions did not contain power to limit the initiation of taxation to one House. He saw no danger m trusting the people who might possess .the new franchise to exercise the right with judgment. Limiting money . matters . to the House pf Representatives will gradually have the 'effect, of weakening the States' Council, They might not have, .responsible government a^s they, knew it np^, , but they would, have responsible government nevertheless. ;He wpuid like to see . the same, franchise throughout Australia, atid . bothi Houses elected on the most, liberal franchise (possessed by any colony. He would not however» jeopardise federation by too strong on ; his views. He thought that nearly all the colonies, m tlie present condition of development at any rate, would, hesitate before, handing over the railways holusbpius.i Referring to finance he hoped that the federal power would not be allowed to haVe a large surplus to' teturn. This was one reason why he thought that the railways should not be handed over. He thought that theycquld. so arrange the finances that while the Federal powerß are not stinted, it would not be given control over too much money. It, would be better indeed, if it had a small deficit. In the course of an interview Mr Barton said that the sense of the delegates was against any adjournment of the Convention, and the intention of the Parliaments of the various colonies when, passing the Enabling Bill was that the Convention should frame a Constitution before 1 dispersing. ; • The other colonies would doubtless legislate to permit Queensland to take up the Bill which would emanate from the present Convention. The draft Bill would probably be laid before the Committee of the whole on April 12th, and the Convention would finish 10 days later. Although Mr Reid let it be understood .thqt Queensland desired the adjournment of the Convention to take part m the present Convention, Sir H. Nelsoq, speaking to an interviewer, denied that he wished such a course, hut Queensland would endeavour to be represented on the Convention dealing finally witn'ih'e/Biin.;- ."^ ,'"'." .•':"', '..' ■' ";' : .'. Mr Barton being interviewed said that it was not his opinion, that such an adjournment could be made. It was open to QueenelatiOi to pass a Bill to enable her Parliament i 6 take up the Conatitu-; tioh and move amendments therein. If necessary, 'the other colonies would, doubtleßß "legislate to permit Queensland to do this. As far as he could gather, the sense of the delegates waß against any adjournment, and the intentjon of the Parliaments of the various colonies, when passing \ the Enabling Bill, was that the Convention should ' \ frame 1 a Consti tution before dispersing". The other colonies PUtaicie'New South Wales were prepared to 'deal with" the Constitution remitted to them despite the absence of the Premiers m JEngland. He saw no reason why New South Wales should riot similarly deal .with it. Mr Barton anticipated that the debate would finish about Wednesday. Then, the sectional committees would get to work and draft the Bill, which' w6uld probably be laid before the Committee of the Whole on April 12th, and the Convention would finish ten days later. After the luncheon adjournment, Mr Macmillan, t of Sydney dealt with financial matters. There had been, he said, a tremendous falling off under various tariffs since the financial scheme of 1891, although m that scheme he admitted that stupid blunders had been made. Taking the figures for 1896 a surplus would be returned m the following proportions'under the Federal scheme:— New South Wales, £1 8s 7d ; Victoria, £1 i3ssd: Queensland, £2 la 7d ; South Australia £1 ss"7d ; Tasmania, £1 ios 2d ; Western Australia, £41658 d. It was a difficult thing to work out a financial scheme on a purely scientific, basis. Two things were necessary, first to discover the most equitable arrangement possible, and. then trust to its working out, and also trust to the judgment of the men who form the Federal Parliament. HE felt strongly Pn the question of the Senate. They must keep clearly m view the necessity of a bicameral system. He gave adhesion to Mr Downer's idea of a thoroughly liberal franchise m the election of the Senate. The question of a deadlpck had been made a bogey of. The Responsible Government would give the Senate power to amend, taxation. The Senate neyer rejected appropriations unless they bad an absolutely corrupt lower house to deal with. While the Senate cauet haVe almost cdo'iftinate

power, the lower house must possesi executive power. The difficult pointir having Responsible Government it a Federal Parliament v?s&. the posai: bility of the largencolonies providing th( bulk of Ministersi They must have ovei those things which weretnecesaary foi sovereign power. In the next place thej must hand over 'nothing which the Btates can. better carry 6ut. 'Customs taxation must be handed over, biit the tariff should be framed 16* the first five years on the most liberal' basis. Such a tariff so framed would rfotP establish any distinctive, policy eifche* t)f freetradt; or protection." The eirdir ih the 1891 Bill m regard to ; disposal ; Of ; the sur-i plus was that it returnedthe surplus m proportion ito' the reire^nue raised if&ioving 'the differeritiatibn pf expettditur^.: THe fairest way would to 1 rettirri to the states what they surierfd ered by way of customs taxation . jess the Bhare' of cost of tiie central administritapnoh the. basis of population. From^ a Jbusiness; point of view his Bympa2^ef .favoured the Tailways being under -"a- central control, but the difficulties m the way; politically were enormous, and might leadto disintegration of the federation.; They must leave the burdea of develop ment tp the states- themselves. Queens-j land's main system pf railways ran east' and west, and therefore h,a,d,litt\e <?om-j munication with > >the.: other; colonies,; while the Western : Aus^ral^n^rajl ways; were not , with^PSQ of -,-the: other colonies at preßent»^hen, Uplands! were .deyelbpgd;'the.a /th^^ml^iit come! under federal could not give over the railways without; the ppwer ,pf future, » Je .looked , forward \ta^hje^tirn^ 'wjheii one; central' 'f(onjbro)L,* * s^^^t |^I t !lnfli|s ence> sli i puld- dominate the wppi.e of the! railways , of _i.iaßral|a, "s#sl $&'$ ing a complete scheme ti ,pf tion of debts was a tast wholly outside the Convention. When, Engijtsh people saw that Australia! spoke with one voice, s£>me such<. scheme might, be possible. His own idea was that the most commonsense .plan, would be to allow these debts to die out.