PREMIERS' CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 37, 9 March 1909, Page 2

PREMIERS' CONFERENCE.

THE .STATUS' KXTRAVAUAXT UOVEHXiIENT. Received !►, O.IIU a.m. Hohart, March 8. Alcssrs I'iiilier, AlcMahon unll, Hughes attended tlie I'reiniers' Conference. Air. Kislier (Federal Premier) in a general statement, outlined the growing re<inirenient«i and expanding obligations of tlie Commonwealth, mid intinuiU'd that lie proposed tu disc-lose tilt' li.'Miicial policy of thei Government in a speech he would deliver at Gympie at the end of the month. He had jn> scheme to submit to the conference as regards the settlement of the Hraddon clause difficulty, hut he would he glad to receive any representations the Conference had to make. Afr. .UcJlahoiL dealt with the lavish expenditure of some of the States. A 1 though federation in 1000 had relieved them of departments easting four mil lions annually, the expenditure of tin States Jiad grown from four and a-hall to seven and a-hnlf millions in the snnu tiinei The population from the date o' federation to 1!I0G had remained prae tically stationary. It would lie idle t( 1 contend that any development in Alts tralia in the past eight veais warrantci suelii a huge increase in the cost o Government.