CHAP. VII] MERCHANT SHIPPING 1199 
was intended to apply.” The judge went on to point out 
that this interpretation was in accordance with the state of 
tacts which must be taken to have been within the knowledge 
of the British Legislature at the time s. 5 was passed. It 
was known that a shipping trade carried on by ships owned 
and registered in Australia and manned and officered by 
Australian citizens had for many years existed in Australia 
and was rapidly increasing, and that it extended to New 
Zealand, the Pacific, and Indian ports. It was reasonable 
to impute to the British Legislature an intention to place 
the ships engaged on round voyages in such a trade in the 
same position as regards Australian laws as the ordinary 
British ship holds in regard to British laws, namely, that 
while on a voyage coming within the meaning of the section 
the Australian ship should be for the purposes of Common- 
wealth laws! a floating portion of Commonwealth territory. 
If the voyage were of that description it was immaterial to 
what part of the world it might extend. If it were a round 
voyage beginning at an Australian port, calling at Calcutta, 
or any foreign port, and ending in an Australian port, the 
ship during the whole voyage would be under the Common.- 
wealth laws and under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth 
Courts. He held on the evidence that the voyages in which 
the ships in question were engaged were not such voyages. 
The effect of this judgement is seen in the Navigation 
Bill of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of 1910, 
masmuch as a new definition has been introduced in s. 5, 
namely : ‘ Australian trade-ship * includes every ship (other 
than a limited coast-trade ship, or river and bay ship) em- 
ployed in trading or going between places in Australia, and 
ery ship employed in trading between (a) Australia, and 
* Such laws might be those regarding coloured races (s. 81, xxvi), or 
immigration and emigration (xxvii), influx of criminals (xxviii), external 
affairs (xxix), relations with islands of Pacific (xxx), trade and commerce 
with other countries and between the states (especially if extended to all 
rade and commerce as proposed in the Bill of 1910), naval and military 
defence (vi), lighthouses, &e. (vii), quarantine (ix), fisheries beyond terri- 
borial waters (x), census and statistics (xi), currency, coinage, and legal 
tender (xii), insurance (xiv), weights and measures (xv), &o. 
wo