5GARD TO COMPANIES. 493 



the necessary authority to decide whether a company can 

 do business in a province or country when the company lias 

 not been licensed by the Dominion . The Minister of Justice 

 (Hon. A. B. Aylesworth) speaking in the Dominion Parlia- 

 ment at Ottawa quite recently, stated that the case was 

 "but one phase of a larger question as to the powers 

 respectively of the Dominion Parliament and of the local 

 Legislatures in regard to the incorporation of companies. 

 That question was not long since raise. I for the decision of 

 the Supreme Court, and the members of that Court differed 

 among themselves very decidedly in the opinions they 

 expressed." He also stated that a meeting was proposed 

 between representatives of the provinces and of the 

 Dominion Government to discuss tu«- who!.- subject; "not 

 merely the question of the insurance legislation hut the 

 larger one as to the right to incorporate companies in the 

 provinces and in the Dominion respectively." Now, if the 

 matters to which reference is thus made are in doubt in 

 Canada, is it improbable that they are involved in doubt in 

 Australia also ? In the United States a Corporation Tax 

 law has for the first time just been passed; and the various 

 life companies have promptly applied to the Supreme Court 

 at Washington for relief from the new taxation so far as it 

 affects their interests. The offices claim that " Individuals 

 and ordinary partnerships engaged in similar businesses 

 are not taxed. How can a tax on A and B and not on O 

 and D, when all are carrying on the same kind of business, 

 be a tax on business or occupation ? The tax, as a franchise 

 tax, constitutes so far as State corporations are concerned 

 an interference with the sovereign powers and functions of 

 the States, not surrendered to the general Government and 

 expressly reserved to the States by the tenth amendment 

 to the Constitution." 1 The result of this litigation will be 

 looked for with interest. 



