FEDERAL FINANCES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 453, 11 March 1909, Page 5

FEDERAL FINANCES.

< MR. FISHER'S ATTITUDE. SPECTRE OF.A SEVENTH BORROWER. (lir TBf.EUIU I'll—l'll ES« ASSOCIATION-COI'TKHiHr.) Hobart, March 10. Mr. Fisher (Federal Prime Minister) informed the Premiers' Conference that the Federal Government had no intention to take full advantage-of the Braddon clause. He wished the Conference and tho country to get out of their minds that his' Government at tho end of 1910 intended to seizo the whole of the Customs and excise revenue. Ho desired in a general way to see the financial relationship of tho Commonwealth and tho States settled on some satisfactory basis, but ho was not irrevocably committed to a scheme which compels all tho work required by the Commonwealth to be constructed out of revenue. At tho same time, he viewed with .political horror tho idea of a seventh borrower in Australia. Mr. Fisher added that it would take something to move him to launch out on a borrowing policy until some arrangement had been come to between tho Commonwealth and the States. DISCUSSION AT CONFERENCE. . (Rec. March 11, 1.10 a.m.) Hobart, March 10. The Premiers' Conference held an unfinished discussion on the financial relations of tho States and the Commonwealth. Several proposals for solving tho problem were submitted.