AUSTRALASIA. 



designs, and trade-marks; naturalization and 

 aliens; foreign corporations, and trading or finan- 

 cial corporations formed within the limits of the 

 commonwealth; marriage; divorce and matri- 

 monial causes, and in relation thereto parental 

 rights and the custody and guardianship of in- 

 fants; invalid and old-age pensions; the service 

 and execution throughout the commonwealth of 

 the civil and criminal process and judgments of 

 the courts of the states; the recognition through- 

 out the commonwealth of the laws, the public acts 

 and records, and the judicial proceedings of the 

 slates; the people of any race, other than the 

 original race in any state, for whom it is deemed 

 necessary to make special laws; immigration and 

 emigration; the influx of criminals; external af- 

 fairs ; the relations of the commonwealth with the 

 islands of the Pacific; the acquisition of property 

 on just terms from any state or person for any pur- 

 pose in respect of which the Parliament has power 

 to make laws ; the control of railways with respect 

 to transport for the naval and military purposes 

 of the commonwealth; the acquisition, with the 

 consent of a state, of any railways of the state on 

 terms arranged between the commonwealth and 

 the state; railway construction and extension in 

 any state with the consent of that state; concili- 

 ation and arbitration for the prevention and set- 

 tlement of industrial disputes extending beyond 

 the limits of any one state; matters in respect of 

 which this Constitution makes provision until the 

 Parliament otherwise provides; matters referred 

 to the Parliament of the commonwealth by the 

 Parliament or Parliaments of any state or states, 

 but so that the law shall extend only to states 

 by whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or 

 which afterward adopt the law ; the exercise with- 

 in the commonwealth, at the request or with the 

 concurrence of the Parliaments of all the states 

 directly concerned, of any power which may at 

 the establishment of this Constitution be exer- 

 cised only by the Parliament of the United King- 

 dom or by the Federal Council of Australasia; 

 matters incidental to the execution of any power 

 vested by this constitution in the Parliament or 

 either house thereof, or in the Government of 

 the commonwealth, or in the Federal judicature, 

 or in any department or officer of the common- 

 wealth. 



The executive powers transferred to the com- 

 monwealth comprise the departments of posts, 

 telegraphs, and telephones; naval and military 

 defense; lighthouses, light-ships, beacons, and 

 buoys; and quarantine. These can be taken over 

 ;it any date after the establishment of the com- 

 monwealth. The chief command of the naval and 

 military forces is vested, however, in the Gov- 

 ernor General. 



The bill provided that the judicial power of the 

 commonwealth should be vested in a Federal su- 

 preme court, to be called the High Court of Aus- 

 tralia, and in such other Federal courts as the 

 Parliament might create and such other courts as 

 it might invest with Federal jurisdiction, the 

 High Court to consist of a chief justice and so 

 many other justices, not less than two, as the 

 Parliament should prescribe. The justices of the 

 High Court and the other courts to be created by 

 the Parliament were to be appointed by the Gov- 

 ernor General in Council, and not to be removed 

 except by the Governor General in Council on an 

 address from both houses of Parliament in the 

 same session praying for their removal on the 

 ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity. 

 They should receive such remuneration as the 

 Parliament fixed, but it was riot to be changed 

 during their continuance in office. The High 



Court should have jurisdiction, subject to such 

 exceptions and regulations as the Parliament pre- 

 scribed, to hear and determine appeals from judg- 

 ments, decrees, orders, and sentences of any jus- 

 tice or justices exercising the original jurisdiction 

 of the High Court, of any other Federal court or 

 court exercising Federal jurisdiction, or of the 

 Supreme Court of any state or any other state 

 court from which an appeal lies to the Queen in 

 ( ouncil, or as to questions of law of the Interstate 

 Commission. No exception or regulation of the 

 Parliament should prevent the High Court from 

 hearing and determining appeals from the Su- 

 preme Court of a state in any matter in which at 

 the establishment of the commonwealth an appeal 

 lies to the Queen in Council, and the same condi- 

 tions and restrictions on appeals to the Queen in 

 Council should be applicable to appeals to the 

 High Court unless the Parliament otherwise pro- 

 vides. No appeal should be permitted to the 

 Queen in Council in any matter involving the in- 

 terpretation of the commonwealth Constitution or 

 the constitution of a state unless the public inter- 

 ests of some other part of the imperial dominions 

 are involved. The royal prerogative to grant ap- 

 peal from the High Court to the Privy Council 

 would not be impaired except so far as the pro- 

 visions of the Constitution limit it, but the Parlia- 

 ment would have power to impose further limita- 

 tions. Fn matters arising under any treaty, af- 

 fecting consuls or other representatives of other 

 countries, in which the commonwealth is a party, 

 between states or residents of different states, or 

 in mandamus or injunction proceedings against 

 officers of the commonwealth, the High Court 

 should have original jurisdiction, and the Parlia- 

 ment might confer original jurisdiction in any 

 matter arising under the Constitution or involving 

 its interpretation, arising under any laws made by 

 the Parliament, of admiralty and maritime juris- 

 diction, relating to the same subject matter 

 claimed under the laws of different states. In 

 admiralty and maritime jurisdiction or to conflicts 

 in the laws of different states as to the same sub- 

 ject matter the Parliament could make laws de- 

 nning the jurisdiction of any other Feueral court 

 than the High Court and defining the extent to 

 which such jurisdiction should be exclusive of 

 that which belongs to or is vested in the state 

 courts, also investing any state court with Fed- 

 eral jurisdiction. Parliament may make laws con- 

 ferring rights to proceed against the common- 

 wealth or a state. The Federal jurisdiction of any 

 court may be exercised by such number of judges 

 as the Parliament prescribes. Trial of any offense 

 against any law of the commonwealth shall be by 

 jury, and every trial shall be held in the state 

 where the offense was committed, but when it is 

 not committed within a state the Parliament may 

 prescribe the place of trial. 



The Federal Constitution provides for a uniform 

 postal and telegraph service, and at some time in 

 the future a single control over railroad commu- 

 nications. Everything connected with the ex- 

 ternal relations of the six federating colonies will 

 be a matter for the commonwealth and not for 

 the state governments. A common tariff will be 

 established for all the colonies, and at the same 

 time there will be intercolonial free trade. The 

 national defenses will be under one control. The 

 Constitution is modeled more closely after that of 

 the TJnited States than that of any other country. 

 State rights have throughout been jealously pre- 

 served. Whereas in Canada everything not ex- 

 pressly given to the provinces went to the central 

 Government, in Australia the central Government 

 has power only in matters that are distinctly de- 



