AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6794, 14 May 1900, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION.

THE COMMONWEALTH BILL. United Press Association— By Elecirio Telegraph— Copyright. I LONDON, May 12. I A Blue Book, dealing with the Commonwealth Bill, has been issued. Mr Chamberlain, in a final memorandum, declared! that the Referendum had not indicated or qualified the ratification of the Bill in every detail of the Constitution. He denied that the Privy Council was a Court incapable of defenoe, and declared that the amendments indicated no mistrust of the colonies. Four delegates replied tliat the question of appeal was a vital matter, not a tnere detail. In acknowledging Mr Dickson's explanation of -why he bad not signed the memorandum of April 27, Mr Chamberlain expressed appreciation of his great services. The "Times" oonsiders that there is a remarkable concensus of Australian opinion in faivour of the amendment, and expresses confidence that riper judgment, even on the part of opponents, will justify Mr Chamberlain's attitude. The "Chronicle" finds it difficult to understand the Government's cold, formal stickling over every shred and tittle of prerogative. Mr Kingston, in a letter to the newspapers, repudiated as monstrous the suggestion that the claim of Australia to decide purely Australian questions was equivalent to an attempt to dismember tbe Empire. He declared that Lord Lamingbon's extraordinary intrusion into the affair was unseemly, •unconstitutional and unfair. He ridiculed the protests of Chief Justices Way and Darley, and implied selfishness in view of prospective benefits in the shape of peerages. He protested against Chief Justice Way's extraordinary extra-judicial secret intrigue.

The " Daily Newa " says that if the Australian people are behind the delegates, it is idle, mischievous and dangerou- to try to thwart them ; if not, then the best solution ia to pass a new appellate Bill concurrently with the Commonwealth Bill, leaving the Federal Parliament to adopt tflie new Court. It protests against Mr Kingston's suggestion that the Chief Justices are using their influence because they hungered after salaried peerages. The " Pall Mall Ga^ aette " deprecates Mr Kingston's personalities. If the Government is firm and moderate there is no prospect of Australia indignantly rejecting, the new- Court Tl«J' " Westminster Gazette " holds it to be dangerous for the Colonial Secretary to take a hand in Australian politics. The Imperial spirit was not always so strong there.

Mr Chamberlain expressed a hope that the delegates •would not hastily return. It is Understood that they "will Temiain some time. Mr Barton, in an interview, said that interference with the internal affairs of the Commonwealth was mischievous and meddlesome, and that Mr Chamberlain was mainly relying on the opinion of a defeated minority. ■