ts<; 



panies, and probably not a drapery company formed in a 

 single State and confining its business to that State. We 

 may also notice incidentally that whilst banking is included 

 in sub-section 13 of section 51, power is explicitly given to 

 the Common wealth regarding the incorporation of banks, 

 so that apparently the Commonwealth can incorporate (i.e., 

 create) a bank, though it cannot create a financial corpor- 

 ation. Obviously where there is authority to incorporate, 

 there is implied power to impose conditions contingent upon 

 and prior to the grant of such incorporation. It has been 

 said that sub-section 20 of section 51 was intended simply 

 to place upon one level corporations which have been 

 created by either State law or the law of a foreign country; 

 and consequently that the difficulty, if any, lies in fixing 

 the respective limits of the powers of the Federal and State 

 Parliaments. For instance, assuming that the State may 

 make a law concerning some trade, which either individuals 

 or companies may carry on, could the Commonwealth pass 

 such a law as to govern a company without governing the 

 individual also? Suppose, to take another illustration 

 which lias been used, that the Federal Parliament decides 

 to confer upon corporations the power to hold lands as a 

 matter of corporate capacity; whereas the State legislature, 

 having control of its own lands, forbids a corporation when 

 admitted by it as a legal entity from holding laud— is the 

 Commonwealth law to prevail ? It has been decided that 

 the Constitution must be construed as a whole, and where 

 either a wide or a restricted meaning can be given to some 

 particular provision therein, then that meaning is to be 

 adopted, "which best gives effect to the distribution of the 

 powers between the States and the Commonwealth." The 

 Common wealth has probably no power over contracts within 

 a State; the State law governs such, whilst the Common- 

 wealth power to make any laws is subject to the Constitu- 





