The Federal Parliament was opened at Melbourne on the 26th of May. In the speech of the Governor-General, Lord Dudley, as reported to the English Press, he stated that "notwithstanding a decrease in the Customs and postal revenue, arrangements had been made to pay old-age pensions from July 1. Large financial obligations would be incurred in the near future and would demand careful attention. Parliament would be invited to consider the financial relations between the Commonwealth and the States, with a view to an equitable adjustment of them. Proposals would be submitted for the establishment of a Commonwealth silver and paper currency. {34} "The Governor-General went on to refer to the coming Imperial Defence Conference and the establishment of a General Staff for the Empire. Engagements had, he said, been entered into for the building of three destroyers, and Parliament would be asked to approve a policy of naval construction including the building of similar vessels in Australia and the training of the necessary crews. A measure providing for an effective citizens’ defence force would be introduced at an early stage. "It being recognized that the effective defence of Australia required a vast increase in the population, it was proposed to introduce a measure of progressive taxation on unimproved land values, leading to a subdivision of large estates, so as to offer immigrants the inducement necessary to attract them in large numbers. "Proposals would be submitted for the amendment of the Constitution, so as to enable Parliament to protect the interests of the consumer while ensuring a fair and reasonable wage to every worker to extend the jurisdiction of Parliament in regard to trusts and combinations, and to provide for the nationalization of monopolies." See (in this Volume), LABOR REMUNERATION: THE ‘NEW PROTECTION’. In an editorial article on the situation at this juncture in Australia, which was, it remarked, "as interesting as it is obscure," the London _Times_ rehearsed the main facts of it as follows: