494 



Regarding the Life Assurance Foreign Companies Bill 

 1906, (withdrawn). — With regard to insurance offices it 

 should be remembered that in Australia in September, 1906, 

 a Life Assurance Foreign Companies Bill was introduced 

 into the House of Representatives, some of its provisions 

 being similar iu scope to some of the proposals of the recent 

 Royal Commission; it was, however, properly characterised 

 as " harsh and crude," and eventually it was not proceeded 

 with. This result is to some extent instructive, since it 

 may be assumed that the proposals which were then made 

 were found on consideration either to be untenable or un- 

 necessary. Probably fuller consideration showed that in 

 relation to life insurance, the power of the Commonwealth 

 was ascertained to be less extensive than perhaps at first 

 sight was assumed; just in the same way that certain 

 difficulties in regard to proposed land taxation by the Com- 

 monwealth have yet to be faced. As one authority has 

 said : — " The Federal Parliament may have power, accord- 

 ing to the letter of the law, to tax land in order to raise 

 revenue, but no one can say that the Constitution takes 

 from the States an atom of their right to say how land 

 shall be held under the Crown, or names land as one of the 

 subjects transferred to the Federal Parliament." If, instead 

 of land, we may substitute insurance, we shall have an idea 

 of what is possibly a kindred serious difficulty regarding 

 the actual present legal position of the life offices of 

 Australia. 



