5

A.—sa

HEI'ORT OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE.

Mr. H. BERTRAM COX : May 1 say that if we get to discussing, as we may, constitutional questions ol some sort, 1 should be very loth to see it reported in the paper next day. One says things across the table which one does not want to see" in print. There are very many constitutional questions which one would like to look up and consider very carefully. I'm: CHAIRMAN : There is the Board of Trade official reporter here taking a full note, but then that would be- much too lengthy a thing for the Press. I think it would be belter to have a summary of the pro eeedings. Perhaps the' secretary would draft a summary and submit it to us. Mu. NORMAN HILL: May I say that we would like Ihe report to be very concise. I understand we are hereto discuss on business lines, and point out where there an business difficulties. We do not want discussions on these published, as they would get to our foreign competitors Sir WILLIAM LYNE: I would suggest it be left to your personal direction. I'm. CHAIRMAN : I think the secretary would be the best; he is absolutely impartial. Hon. W. M. HUGHES: May I make a suggestion. We are a very long way from home, we may say something, and it might be torn from its context in t summary. The CHAIRMAN : There is another question we ought to discuss before we go any further, and that is the selection of secretaries. The Board of Trade has selected Mr. Webster. 1 do not know whether the Colonial delegates would care to have secretaries. Sin WILLIAM LYNE : 1 have a secretary here, and I think Sir Joseph Ward has The CHAIRMAN : 1 think they may be treated as joint secretaries of the Conference in that case. Sin WILLIAM LYNE: 1 do not see any objection to it. The CHAIRMAN : Very well, then, we will treat them as joint secretaries. They can consult together about the minutes. Sir WILLIAM LYNE: We have not decided as to what we are going to do as regards the summary. The CHAIRMAN : I understood it was to be left to the secretaries to draft some-thing and submit it to me as President of the Conference, and then I would send it along to the usual gentlemen to look over before we handed it to the Press. Sir WILLIAM LYNE: We shall only want a careful record of resolutions; I do not think we shall want any summary of the discussion ; it is not as though we were to adjourn for any length of time. Sir JOSEPH WARD: I do not think the -ingestion that a shorthand report of the speeches should be sent to each member of the Conference is a good one; I do not think it is necessary. I should prefer not to see it. I think if we arrive at decisions and a summary of the proceedings is given, as has been suggested, that is sufficient. There will, of course, be an honourable understanding that having decided the course lo follow we do not say anything outside. The CHAIRMAN : Yes, that is very important; it would only excite interest outside, and the shipping interests might get very alarmed, and we do not wain that. ll.in. W. M. HUGHES: 1 think still it is a very proper thing that the joint secretaries should say with yourself what has been done and what resolutions have been passed, and what has not been passed. Still, the steps by which we arrive at those resolutions ought to be left to the Press to report without any censorship at all. That is my point. If the bare outlines of what has been done in the Conference alone goes into an -authoritative report, then on the other side of the world—which is a very important one to us practically—there will be no justification for any act we take at all. The CHAIRMAN : Will not the Colonies' seenrl see to that?

Hon. DUGALD THOMSON: 1 think there should be a plain statement by yourself and the joint secretaries as to what has been done. That this resolution was moved by so-and-so, carried or lost, and then that the full report should be just like an ordinary, say the "Times" newspaper report of proceedings in the House, and each newspaper can please itself to what extent it prints when issued. The CHAIRMAN : That comes to reporting the dis cussion—does that mean that this Conference should be open to the Press! Hon. DUGALD THOMSON : No. THE CHAIRMAN : I think that would be disastrous The report shall be submitted to you Sir William and you Sir Joseph before it is communicated to tlm Press at all. and your two secretaries will assist (he Imperial Government secretary in drafting it, and then it would come to me, and then I will pass it on. Sir WILLIAM LYNE: 1 do not think we should ■have the Press at all. Tin; CHAIRMAN : 1 think we will keep the Press out; we can then talk much more freely. Is there anything else to say before lunch? Very well then, we will see now this arrangement works. I'he Conference then adjourned for luncheon. After lunch. The CHAIRMAN : Mr. Llewellyn Smith wishes to bring some points before the Conference. Me. LLEWELLYN SMITH : 1 hope on behalf of the Imperial Official Delegation to follow your instructions in your opening address, and also the suggestions made by Sir Joseph Ward and Sir William Lyne that we should keep so far as is possible, at the outset at all events, to principles rather than to details, and by principles 1 mean practical principles, not theoretical discussions of questions of jurisdiction and validity and treaty, and so on. These are important matters, but so far as possible we can keep them aside. I think that on the practical epiestions the delegates of the shipowners will speak with more authority than any official can do, but I think 1 may say at the outset that we understand that their greatest desire is, so far as possible, that their ships should not be subject to a multiplicity of codes of regulations according to the ports with which they trade; that in matters in which the Imperial legislation imposes requirements and obligations on our shipowners and their ships, that so far as it is possible these requirements should be accepted reciprocally in all parts of the world. Clearly from a business point of view their business is not very much promoted and simplified if the British ship having to conform to certain requirements as to survey, as to construction, as to life-saving appliances, as to accommodation, as to scale of provisions and so forth by Imperial law, finds when it comes to an Australian port that it has to be subjected to a wholly different set of requirements covering those same grounds, and that when it then goes on to New Zealand it is again subjected to another code of requirements, and possibly in other colonies it may find wholly different regulations, say in South Africa or Canada. Clearly the business of running British shipping is very much complicated. Then of course there is our great wish—and I believe it is the wish of the Colonial Delegations too—that British shipping should not be handicapped by being subjected by Colonial law to requirements more onerous than they are in a position to impose on foreign shipping with which we are in keen competition. There are other matters, but perhaps these are quite sufficient to open this discussion. I have mentioned survey, accommodation, safety regulations, scales of provisions, and then of course there is the manning scale which we have not got by Imperial law ; but with the exception of manning, our Imperial Acts of 1894 and 1906 — .specially I would refer to the recent Act of 1906— impose requirements of an onerous kind upon British ships. Could we perhaps have some discussion as to how far it would be possible, from a business point of view, that compliance with the conditions of our Act of 1906 might be recognised as substantially equivalent to compliance with the corresponding requirements of the Australian law. If so, 1 think it would get over a great many of our difficulties. I do not know whether you wish me to open on other things, Sir, or that being one part of our subject?