of the State should be made uniform, namely, that the appeal should be either to the Privy Council or to the High Court, but not indiscriminately to either." And, lastly, a demand was made for a more thorough consideration of the financial clauses; the evil to be avoided, if possible, being "excessive burdens of taxation, a prolonged system of book-keeping, uncertainty as to the amount of the surplus to be divided, and uncertainty as to the method of distributing it among the States."
The other Premiers, after some difficulty, were induced to meet Mr Reid, and to take his proposals into consideration. And a final compromise was arrived at, the chief points in which were that deadlocks should be dealt with by a simple majority of both Houses at a joint sitting; that the operation of the Braddon clause should be limited to ten years; that the appeal to the Privy Council should be disallowed, in all matters affecting Federal or State rights, and, in private matters, should be restricted, if necessary, by Federal Legislation; and that the Federal Capital should be in New South Wales, at some point not less than 100 miles distant from Sydney. The Governor-General and the Parliament of the Commonwealth will use Melbourne as the temporary capital pending the selection (and construction) of the place of their banishment. And it is generally hoped in Australia that the land-values of this antipodean Washington (the name of which, by the way, remains to be invented) will go a long way towards lightening the burthen of taxation.
The amended Bill was again submitted to the popular vote in June and July of this year (1899), with the result that Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania have reaffirmed, with additional emphasis, their former decision. New South Wales this time accepted it with a sufficient majority: thus leaving only two colonies (for New Zealand
