AUSTRALASIA. 



fined in the Constitution. The Australian Senate 

 consists of six members from each of the states, 

 elected at the same election as the members of 

 the lower house, but by all the electors of each 

 state voting as one constituency except in Queens- 

 land, which is divided into two constituencies. 

 The Representatives, elected in separate districts, 

 will be kept down to double the numbers of the 

 Senate. Members of both houses will be paid and 

 will receive the same salary. .Ministers in taking 

 of lice do not vacate their seats, as in England. A 

 measure that the House of Representatives has 

 pavsed may be rejected by the Senate, and if 

 brought before it in the succeeding session may be 

 rejected again, after which the Government may 

 dissolve both houses and order new elections. If 

 the newly elected House of Representatives passes 

 the same measure and the Senate again rejects it, 

 then there is to be a joint session of both houses, 

 in which the decision is made by a simple major- 

 ity vote. 



A constitutional amendment must first" be 

 passed by an absolute majority of both houses of 

 Parliament, and then in not less than two or not 

 more than six months be submitted in each state 

 to the electors qualified to vote for members of 

 the House of Representatives. If one of the 

 houses of Parliament fails to pass the proposed 

 amendment or makes an amendment to it to 

 which the other will not agree, and if it is again 

 passed by the former after three months in the 

 same or the next session and it is again rejected 

 by the other, the Governor General may submit 

 it to the popular vote either with or without any 

 amendments subsequently agreed to by both 

 houses. The people shall vote in such manner as 

 the Parliament prescribes; but until the qualifi- 

 cation of electors becomes uniform throughout the 

 commonwealth only half the votes shall be 

 counted in states in which adult suffrage prevails. 

 If in a majority of the states a majority of the 

 electors approve of the proposed law, and if a 

 majority of all the electors voting also approve, 

 the proposed law shall be presented to the Gov- 

 ernor General for the Queen's assent. No altera- 

 tion diminishing the proportionate representation 

 of any state in either house of the Parliament, or 

 the minimum number of representatives of a state 

 in the House of Representatives, or increasing, 

 diminishing, or otherwise altering the limits of 

 the state, or in any manner affecting the provi- 

 sions of the Constitution in relation thereto, shall 

 become law unless the majority of the electors 

 voting in that state approve the proposed law. 



Western Australia held out when the other col- 

 onies voted to join the federation, in the hope of 

 securing special amendments in view of its unde- 

 veloped condition, such as differential railroad 

 rates in favor of Western Australian coal and 

 protective duties against the other colonies. 

 After agreeing to railroad connection with South 

 Australia without differential freight rates, the 

 Western Australian Government still asked for 

 Hie right to impose tariff duties, not to exceed 

 the existing duties. The bill provided that the 

 colony might tax imports from other colonies tem- 

 porarily, the duties to be reduced by 20 per cent, a 

 \car until in five years they would disappear. Sir 

 John Forrest, the Premier of Western Australia, 

 asked for fiscal freedom for the five years, the 

 other colonies to be equally free to tax Western 

 Australian goods. To this the other Premiers 

 would not agree, fearing that it might open the 

 door for other amendments. The British Govern- 

 ment, through which the request was presented 

 to the Premiers, urged Western Australia to re- 

 consider its attitude and take steps to enter the 



federation as an original state. This Western 

 Australia decided to do, and made arrangements 

 to have a referendum taken previous to the proc- 

 lamation of the commonwealth. The Parliament, 

 summoned to a special session on May 17, decided 

 to submit the bill as amended by the conference 

 of Premiers to the people of Western Australia. 

 The bill was passed on June 7, and the date of the 

 referendum was fixed for Aug. 7. There were 

 44,704 affirmative and 19,691 negative votes. New 

 Zealand sent a delegate to London to seek through 

 the Imperial Government amendments to the bill 

 providing for immediate action in organizing the 

 common defense, giving New Zealand the right to 

 take part at once in the Federal High Court, and 

 reserving the right to join the commonwealth as 

 an original state at any time within seven years. 

 To these propositions the Premiers could not agree, 

 replying to the inquiries of the Colonial Office "that 

 they had no authority to consent to amendments. 

 The -British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Cham- 

 berlain, requested the several colonies to send 

 delegates to explain and give assistance when the 

 commonwealth bill should come before the Im- 

 perial Parliament. The Premiers agreed in con- 

 ference that each colony should appoint a dele- 

 gate, and that such delegates when appointed 

 should represent all the federating colonies in 

 unitedly urging the passage of the bill without 

 amendment and in explaining any legal and con- 

 stitutional questions that might arise. When the 

 delegates arrived in London Mr. Chamberlain sug- 

 gested several amendments to the draft constitu- 

 tion, in answer to which they signed a memoran- 

 dum reciting their instructions to advocate the 

 passage of the bill without amendment. Mr. 

 Chamberlain, in dispatches to the several Austra- 

 lian governments, requested that the instructions 

 be enlarged to enable the delegates to consider 

 with the Colonial Secretary the form in which 

 amendments might be made so as to render them 

 acceptable to the Australian people. The Pre- 

 miers declined to accept amendments, urging that 

 the bill as it was embodied the Constitution de- 

 sired by the Australian people, having been pre- 

 pared by an elected convention and ratified by a 

 referendum. The Secretary of State for the Col- 

 onies objected to the clause making the Federal 

 High Court, instead of the Privy Council, the final 

 court of appeal. He considered that an important 

 link of empire would be impaired and divergency 

 would spring up where in the general interests 

 unity is most desirable. In interpreting the con- 

 stitution and fixing the boundary between the 

 powers of commonwealth and states the final de- 

 cision, in his opinion, should lie with the highest 

 tribunal of the empire, beyond suspicion of local 

 bias or predilection. The Imperial Parliament 

 could scarcely allow the Australian High Court 

 to decide whether commonwealth laws, those af- 

 fecting British shipping or laws on the fisheries, 

 for instance, are ultra rircs. Banking houses and 

 commercial institutions that had investments in 

 Australia had a strong feeling against the limita- 

 tion to the right to appeal to the Privy Council. 

 The objections to the existing imperial court of 

 appeal would not hold against the new court 

 which the Government proposed to create by 

 amalgamating the judicial committee of the 

 Privy Council with the House of Lords and pro- 

 viding for the adequate representation of the great 

 colonies in the new court by calling into the 

 House of Peers a number of colonial jurists. An- 

 other amendment upon which Mr. Chamberlain 

 insisted was an express statement that the co- 

 lonial laws validity act of 1865 will apply to laws 

 of the commonwealth. 





