that any invasion by the Commonwealth of the sphere of 

 the domestic concerns of the States appertaining to trade 

 and commerce is forbidden, except so far as the invasion is 

 authorised by some power conferred in express terms, or 

 by necessary implication." He held also in the "Boot Trade 

 Employees' case," 1 that "The Commonwealth had admit- 

 tedly no power to interfere directly with the domestic 

 industry or police power of a State." 



We come then to the point arising that when a State law 

 is inconsistent with Commonwealth law, the latter shall 

 prevail, and the former to the extent of the inconsistency 

 is invalid (vide Sec. 109 of the Constitution Act). The test 

 of such inconsistency has been stated to be whether a pro- 

 posedaction wasinconsistent with obedience to the mandates 

 of both Federal ami State authority. These mandates may 

 differ in terms, but so long as they are not contradictory 

 of each other, they may need both to be obeyed. Now, ia 

 the "Harvester case" 2 it was decided by the High Court 

 that "the power to impose taxation must be' considered 

 with reference to the powers reserved to the States." Yet 

 the minority of the Court then held that the power to tax 

 was of the widest, and urged that "the unlimited character 

 of Federal power, once it attaches to a subject, is strikingly 

 exemplified in the most recent of the great constitutional 

 decisions of the American Supreme Court." It was further 

 pointed out that "legislation in a great variety of ways, 

 may affect commerce and persons engaged in it, without 

 constituting a regulation of it within the meaning of the 



Constitution If the defendant is right, tier.- Ii«-s 



before us the prospect— agreeable perhaps to a limited .lass, 

 of perpetual struggles, in which attempts will be made to 

 treat State laws as invalid because they affect (incidentally, 



1 Australian Boot Trade Employees' Federation v Whybrow and others. 

 Re Excise Tariff Act, 1906, regulating internal trade and industry. 



