cHAP. v] THE GOVERNOR AND THE LAW 259
their action and refused their advice, with the result of
8 retirement of the Ministry, when their action in spending
money was criticized severely by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and
they retorted by censuring the new Government for spending
money before Parliament voted it.! And in 1909, in New
Zealand, when the Prime Minister required to go to England
on the invitation of the Imperial Government, to attend the
naval and military conference of that year, he would not go
until he had induced Parliament to meet for a brief period
and pass supply (Act No, 1), so as to provide means for carry-
ing on the Government in his absence. In 1910 matters were
simplified by passing a general Act, No. 43, allowing for
expenditure at current rates for the first quarter of each
new financial year.
Another aspect of the question was shown in the famous
Darling case in Victoria :2 Sir C. Darling in that case, where
the Lower and the Upper Houses were at variance, sanctioned
the levying of duties on a mere resolution of the Lower
House, the raising of a loan without legislative sanction, the
sum being made a legal debt by an admission of liability
under the Crown Remedies Act, 28 Vict. No. 241, and the
payment of official salaries without appropriation. The
opinion of the Secretary of State on these proceedings was
conveyed in two dispatches of November 27, 1865, and
February 26, 1866, from which the following are extracts.
After reciting the law of 22 Vict. No. 86, under which
appropriations required the sanction of the Audit Commis-
sioners, who had to be satisfied that the sums were legally
available, and the signature of the Governor, and the Crown
Remedies Act, which empowered the Governor to satisfy
from the consolidated fund the demand of a claimant against
the Colonial Government who had obtained a certificate from
the Supreme Court of the validity of his claim, he proceeded :
In this state of the law the Government, with your
sanction, prevailed upon one of the banks in which a ¢ Public
' House of Commons Debates, 1896, Sess. 2, pp. 1634 seq. (Sir C. Tupper’s
view of the duty of a Governor). Cf. also Pope, Sir John Macdonald,
217, for Sir J. Macdonald’s view in 1859. ? See below, pp. 605 seq.
QQ
