cap. 11] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 807
In a dispatch of February 16, 1907, the Secretary of State
communicated to the Governor of South Australia the de-
cision of His Majesty’s Government that it was not possible
to admit the states to the Colonial Conference. His Majesty’s
Government did not wish to discuss the complicated question
of the balance of Commonwealth and state powers; but
they felt bound to point out that the establishment of the
Commonwealth had so affected the constitutional position
that there remained from that point of view no real analogy
between the State of South Australia and the Colony of
Natal. South Australia had already surrendered some of
the most characteristic attributes and functions of self-
government, and might at any moment surrender others.
Defence, customs and excise, post and telegraphs, immigra-
tion, naturalization, over-sea trade and commerce, had all
become subject to the paramount control of the Federal
Parliament, while Natal could still exercise control over all
these subjects. The Commonwealth in exercising its powers
was not an agent of the states, it derived its authority direct
from the same sources as the states—legally, from the
Imperial Parliament ; politically, from the will of the people.
From the former point of view neither states nor Common-
wealth were agents or delegates even of the Imperial Parlia-
ment ; from the latter both alike represented the people of
Australia but for different purposes. The matter at issue;
therefore, resolved itself into the question whether the
purposes of the Colonial Conference were included in the
purposes for which the people of Australia had chosen to be
represented by the Commonwealth. In point of fact the
great majority of the subjects were matters which were now
in effect the business of the Commonwealth alone, and there-
fore His Majesty’s Government could not arrange for the
separate representation of the states at the forthcoming
Conference. Their decision implied no failure to appreciate
the importance of the states or the necessity for inviting
and fully considering the opinions of the States Governments
within their own spheres, but no other decision could be
See Cd. 3340, pp. 30 seq.
