The Conference of State Tvessurers with Sir Geo. Turner, Federal Trexsurer, has just finished ats sittings in Melbourne, to consider a umber of anatters affecting Australiny finances. he memorandum of the Federal Treasurer setting out the lines upon which the State debts could be taken over by the Commonwealth was discussed and satisfactory progress was made. The State Premiers conferred every morning viv.. ving into the conference with the treasurers, and their attitude towards the plan proposed by Sir Georze, namely, the handing over to the Common: wealth of the gross railway receipts, was decidedly antagonistic. They averred that the scheme would fall with undue severity upon the smaller States, Queens!and, South Australia, und Tasmania, and its adoption would practically mean the handing over of the railways t" the Commo swealil. The vexed question of the properties transferred by the Siates to the Commonwealth was discussed, but brought no nearer solution. The Sato Vreasurers held that payment should be made either in each or Coumouwealth stock, There are great difficulties both ways. Some of the papers commented with grest severity on the anti-federal attitude displayed by the State Treasurers they seemed to consider the parts of the Commonwealth of much greater impor ance than the whole.
Foundation Day. history." "We hare ho history of the war "Happy is the people that has no and revolutionary type and yet not the most sanguine optim: st could dare to say that we sre a happy people just now. At the great banquet held on our holiday to commemorate the landing of Governor Phillip in Sydney Harbour in 1788, all the Melbourne speeches were sicklied o'er with the pale-cast of anxious thought for the morrow of our national life. "The plain truth is there are not enough of us, Australis wants popalation, wants it badly, and yet she continues to lose it; every year's statistics show that more people g" aitay from our shores than come and stay here. Also we are plunged in debt and the 'Treasurers' Conference which las just been going on in Melbourne has not done much to help to rectify the position. Mr. Deakin in his speech owned himself baffled by the extraordinary state of parties in the new Federal Parliament; the Ministerialists, the Opposition, and the Inbour party are all about equal.' As it is, the Labour party is "on top," and it is predicted that of all possible combinations necessary to carry on party Government—for two out of the combine—a coalition ists and the Opposition, throwing the Labour members into' direct opposition, is the consummation to be sought. Another way out of the difculty for Mr. Deskin is spoken of: that he should represent the Commonwealth in London as High Commissioner. In that case Mr. Kingston, very strong: man, would probably be Prime Minister. Another contingency under discussion ix a probable di nit the Government is defeated on u.e Arbitration Bill, and Ministers themselves think that will be their fate if a Labour member moves that railway servants be brought under the jurisdiction of the suggested Court, Death of Sir Graham Berry.
The death of Sir Graham; Berry, which occurred at the advanced ago of eighty-one. removes one wh was quite the strongest force politically Victoria has ever known. Twenty years ago his name was a household word us most pronounced Radical; no man in his time was better hated than Graham Berry, the author of the well-remembered "Berry blight," but in his Intter days he accepted a knighthood, and the agent-generalship in London, and his old ago was spent in a jul semi-conservatism, very different from the struggles and wild Liberalism of early manhood. Sir Graham was a-velt-made man; ut one time he kept a little grocery store in Geelong, but his abilities could not but force him to the fro He is best remembered ax the promu'gator of the edict for "Black Wednesday" when the Civil servants were decimated so ruthlessly. He was one of the embassy to London when the deadlock between the Upper and Lower Houses over the appropriation bill threatened to paralyse oblige busines:, Sir George Bowen was Bovernor at the time and was more thea suspected of being strongly in sympathy with the Berry party. Berry was the author of the well-known saying that he would make Victoria ''a paradise for the working man." In private life Sir Graham was a midly domestic mau who could never quite master the letter "h," and who left fifteen children.
Death of Sir Edward Braddon.
General regret was felt throughout Australia at the death of Sir Edward Brad-don, M.-P. Sir Eaward was bora on the 11th Tune, 1829. - and after lewing school spent sume years in India in the service of the British Government, He served through the Mutiny, and subsequently held a number "f important public offices in India. In 1878 he retired f.om active service on a pension, and went to Tasmania, where he took an active part in public life, and held several Ministerial including the Premiership in prominent Federalist, and was the aushar of a provision in the Commenwenith Constitution which is known politiedly as "the Braddon Blot.' Atthe last Federal elections Sir Edward was returned to the Hous: of Representatives for the Wilmot division. He was personally very popular, and was always an honest and consistent politician. He was a brother of Miss Braddon, the well-known novelist.
Changes in the Victorian Cabinet.
In local politics the event of the month has been the retirement of the Premier, Mr. W. H. Irvine, who gives up work of all kinds both public and private, under medical advice; Mr. Shiels has also retired invalided. Mr. Thos. Bent, Minister of Heal: h and Public Works, has been made Premier and to-day it is announced that seven out of the eight salaried portfolios have been allotted.—Mr. Tivine'w admirers are busily working him up a presentation fund. It is difficult to see exactly why, but feeling ran very high for and against his Government during the troublous period of the railway strike. Mr. Bent, the now Premier, was then Minister of Railways and responsible for the whole im So many changes have been made in this Cabinet that it has been termed the "Chameleon Ministry."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.