Australia The scheme for establishing an Australian Reserve Bank has
been further postponed. At the moment everyone is agreed that the Commonwealth Bank can provide what is needed, and that this is not the time for a change of machinery. Australia has got herself into trouble by extravagance in borrowing followed by the fall in price of her staple exports. Her immense resources could well overcome the temporary difficulties due to those causes, but her trade unions have not allowed the country to rise up and fight her troubles. For long periods they have paralysed her commerce in some of the most important spheres. The Commonwealth Labour Govern- ment seems to realize the mess made in this " Workmen's Paradise," but the remedies of prohibitive protection will not bring revenues that will set things right. It was agreed last week at the Loan Councils Conference that the credits of all the Australian Banks in London should he pooled to meet the Government's ()verses obligations of about £30,000,000 a year. This should strengthen the position. They have the advantage of Sir Otto Niemeyer's experience and clear-headed advice. The burdens that fall on Western Australia seem to some people there so undeserved that they talk seriously of seceding from the Commonwealth.
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