[martin] the Colonial policy of the dominion 37 



independence and autonomy, and to be directly under the Crown as 

 its head. Within those limits ... its local legislature . . . was 

 to be supreme." ^ The Lieutenant-Governor thus exercises within 

 the limits of powers reserved to the province, the amplest prerogatives 

 of the Crown. Was the Lieutenant-Governor of the territories to 

 exercise prerogative, or merely statutory and delegated, powers? 



A similar problem arose with regard to the Crown lands. The 

 original Dominion as such was literally landless. Even where certain 

 lands were required for federal purposes — -for Indian reserves in 

 Ontario, railway lands in British Columbia, etc. — these were trans- 

 ferred by the several provinces "in trust," and a long series of cases 

 has established the priority of provincial rights wherever public lands 

 have been brought into question. 



It would seem indeed from the B.N. A. Act of 1867 itself that no 

 other arrangement was contemplated. By section 146 of that great 

 measure the prospective union not only of British Columbia, Prince 

 Edward Island and Newfoundland, but of Rupert's Land and the 

 North-Western Territory, was made specifically "subject to the pro- 

 visions of this Act." It is to be observed that Sir John A. Macdonald 

 himself, in drafting the measure that has been held to have changed 

 the whole nature and purpose, in this respect, of the original Con- 

 federation, stated that 



"Even if the terms of the Address (specified in the B.N. A. Act, 



1867, section 146) had included a new constitution for the 



North-West it must, under the above cited section, have been 



subject to the provisions of the Imperial Act of Union." ^ 



While subordinate status is not even implied in the B.N. A. Act 



of 1867,^ however, it may not be without significance that in the 



Rupert's Land Act of the following year the phrase "according to 



the provisions of this Act" is omitted from that section (31-32 Vic, 



c. 105, s. 5) which confirms the provisions of the B.N. A. Act of 1867 



for the union of Rupert's Land with Canada. If this omission 



indicates deliberate preparation for subordinate territorial status, the 



Rupert's Land Act must be regarded not only as the first amendment 



but in one sense the most important of all amendments to the B.N. A. 



Act of 1867. It not only provided for extinguishing — -"absolutely," 



^Lord Haldane in the Manitoba Initiative and Referendum Case (6 Geo. V, c. 59). 

 Law Journal Reports, November, 1919, p. 145. 



^December 29, 1870, Can. Sess. Papers, 1871, vol. 5, Paper No. 20. 



'Except in the fact that the terms of admission are not, as in the case of P.E.I., 

 B.C., or Newfoundland, to be subject to "addresses . . . from the Houses of the 

 respective Legislatures." 



