1342 THE JUDICIARY [PART VI
to follow from that decision that the right of amotion is
absolute in the case of all officers, whether holding by patent
or not, unless they hold during good behaviour. On that
assumption the only officers to which the Act still applies
are such officers as hold during good behaviour, and are
appointed by patent ; that is, in the self-governing Colonies
practically only the judges and a few other officers! But it
may safely be assumed that an amotion will not be resorted
to again in a self-governing Colony. The constitutional
mode of procedure is clearly that laid down in so many
Constitutional Acts, an address either separately or jointly
from the Houses of the Colonial Legislature on the model
of the procedure in the United Kingdom itself.
There is, however, a distinction between those cases in
which the power to remove is vested in the Governor and
those in which it is vested in the Crown. It has definitely
been decided by the Law Officers? that if the power is
vested in the Crown, the Crown will not exercise that power
without inquiry ; it will use its power to refer the case to
the Privy Council under the Act 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 41, s. 4,
and the Privy Council will consider whether a case has been
made out on which the Secretary of State should be advised
to act. There is no legal necessity to refer to the Privy
Council, but naturally the Secretary of State in considering
so grave a matter would prefer to refer to a body skilled in
Colonial law, and by their weight and knowledge possessing
an authority which cannot be possessed by any Secretary of
State.
On the other hand, though there has been no case of recent
years, and it may be expected that cases are not very likely
to arise, it would obviously be a strong matter to refuse to
accept the petition from two Houses of a Dominion Legisla-
' Such as railway commissioners, auditors, civil service commissioners,
and members of the Native Board contemplated in the schedule to the
South Africa Act, 1909, and members of the Inter-state Commission con-
templated in the Commonwealth Constitution ; also members of certain
Commissions, e.g. the Land Tax Commission (Act No. 21 of 1910).
i See Parl. Pap., August 1862 (Boothby’s case), pp. 68, 69.
