INTERCOLONIAL WATER RIGHTS AS AFFECTED BY FEDERATION. 233 



INTERCOLONIAL WATER RIGHTS AS AFFECTED BY 

 FEDERATION. 



By H. G. McKlNNEY, M.Inst. C.E. 

 [With Plate V.] 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, December 5, 1900.'] 



In the Australasian Federation Enabling Act, the only section 

 which directly relates to the question of State Water Rights is as 

 follows: — "The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regula- 

 tion of trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the 

 residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of rivers for 

 conservation or irrigation." 



There will doubtless be many important questions to settle in 

 connection with the regulation of intercolonial trade and commerce 

 but none of them will be more difficult, or will require more care 

 in its treatment, than those relating to "the reasonable use of the 

 waters of rivers." The section succeeding that quoted indicates 

 the means by which all such questions are to be settled. It reads 

 as follows: — "There shall be an Inter-State Commission, with 

 such powers of adjudication and administration as the Parliament 

 deems necessary for the execution and maintenance within the 

 Commonwealth, of the provisions of this Constitution relating to 

 trade and commerce, and of all laws made thereunder." 



Three other colonies — Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia 

 — are interested to a very important extent in our western river 

 system, or in other words in the Murray River and its tributaries. 

 New South Wales and Victoria have also a joint interest in the 

 Snowy and Genoa Rivers, Queensland and South Australia have 

 a joint interest in Cooper's Creek and other important though 

 intermittent creeks and rivers, and it may prove that South Aus- 

 tralia and Western Australia have similar joint interests of more 

 value than is at present believed. It would appear, however, 

 that the powers of the Federal Government do not extend to 



