Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1930), Sunday 19 February 1899, page 7


MELBOURNE JUBILANT.

Another reprosentafcive maa connected ?vyith a lead-ing city retaiUn.g firm said:— 'If the Federal Parliament is held m. Mel-bourne until the Federal Houses of Parliament are built, Melbourne will in the meantime have become the commercial

centre of Australia, and wlU. cpsvtinue to be fio even after the Parliarnent is removed to the Federal City, if evel1 it is so femoved. Apropos of this, I was pn Saturday conversing with a gentleman just returned from Melbourne.' He said that comercial people there were quietly jubilant over the fact that the Parliament would be held there, and in a cbnvef3atiqn he had had On the subject he was told : Oh, never mind about the Federal City ; let two' Paflitoents be held in Melbourne, and yo& Wil'l teee that a majority of your own New South Wales members will vote for th'e retention of the Parliament here (Mel-, qilrne).' The Melbourne people evidently Judge the majority of the, other members to be the same a3 Mr. Reid, whose plaftic attitude has given Victoria sO much to ho'jie tpx., commercially and socially. . Mr. Reid' ii8a; said that the Premiers of the othsr

colonies are honorable rrien. Granted. I would never contend that they are n6t, but times change, and so do men— the latter particularly so.'