Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 2)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896935052

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-238139

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 2

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XI Seiten, Seiten 570-1100

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part IV. The federations and the union // Chapter II. The commonwealth of Australia

Collection:: Economics Books

900 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV further conditions in favour of an early taking over of debt and the creation of a Council of Finance which should control a sinking fund and decide as to new loan issues, whether for state or Commonwealth. Parliament was to appropriate annually the amount required to pay interest and charges on the debt, £8,753,000. The Commonwealth would be recouped out of surplus revenue plus any addi- tional payment necessary, diminishing after five years according to a sliding scale, and ceasing altogether in thirty years. A state which made default was to be liable to a tax, on a certificate of the Council of Finance, and the Council could suspend its powers of borrowing for ten years. At the same time the states were to hand over gratis the transferred properties. The first payments were to be £2,753,000, and the surplus revenue credited, which at first would be £6,000,000, would have been raised to £6,568,000 in 1920-1, and when in thirty years the debts were extinguished the Commonwealth would in effect be paying the whole £8,753,000 a year. This scheme had the obvious merit of settling and separating the revenues of the two bodies, but the states complained that it deprived them of future in- sreases of revenue from customs and excise, and said they must have a fixed annual sum and a proportionate part of all increases of revenue! In March 19092 the conference ceassembled at Hobart, when Mr. Fisher attended but made no proposal. It was then suggested that the Commonwealth should return three-fifths only of the revenues from customs and excise, with a minimum of £6,750,000, and the arrange- ment was to be perpetual, and not to be altered without an amendment of the Constitution. The distribution was to be on a per capita basis with a special allowance of £250,000 a year to Western Australia, to diminish by £10,000 a year. Mr. Fisher referred to his proposal in his political speech at Gympie in March 1909,2 when he pointed out that the surplus revenue thus placed at the disposal of the Common- wealth would be only £1,313,000, which was inadequate to + Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, 1908, No. 44. Thid.. 1909. No. 48. See also Nos. 23, 44, 50. * Argus, March 31, 1909.

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