966 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
instructions! In any case the power will doubtless be 
sparingly used, and only on the gravest Imperial grounds. 
[t may be remembered that only one Commonwealth Bill 
has been reserved since the inauguration of the Common- 
wealth ; that was the British Preference Bill of 1906, which 
purported to give a preference to British goods imported in 
British vessels manned exclusively by white labour, which 
was reserved on the advice of ministers as it was deemed to 
be counter to treaty obligations, and which was by the consent 
of the Commonwealth Government allowed to lapse. 
The restriction of the period of disallowance to one year 
is borrowed from the Australian precedent, which had its 
origin in the Federal Council of Australasia Act, 1885, and is 
in accord with the practice in the Canadian Provinces. It 
cannot be said to be altogether convenient, since if the 
Act was one which contained objectionable matter among 
satisfactory provisions the Imperial Government would be 
put in the difficult position of either disallowing a measure 
of value or of allowing it to stand good without amendment, 
whereas if two years were allowed the Act might be allowed 
to stand on the understanding that it should be amended 
in the next session of Parliament. This inconvenience has 
been felt by the Dominion Government in the case of 
Provincial Acts, and the only alternative procedure, that of 
allowing the Act to stand on the faith of a promise of amend- 
ment, is not a convenient one. Ministers in the Dominions 
cannot often control the Parliaments, and a failure to carry 
legislation is apt to give rise to charges, tacit or explicit, of 
bad faith, and to lead to friction. Fortunately the proba- 
bility of legislation seriously defective being passed by the 
Union Parliament is not sufficiently great to render the 
matter of much concern. Similarly the restriction of the 
time within which a reserved Bill may be assented to to one 
year, which is not precedented even in Australia, though it 
applies to the Canadian Provinces, is open to objection, 
indeed more serious objection than in the other case 
* See Sydney Federal Debates, p. 779, when a formal amendment was 
not accepted, the position being regarded as clear.