266 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [rArT LI
and even if the Governor were able to concur that the
special payment was necessary in the public interest, yet
the fact remained that the necessity arose while the House
was in session, and could have been dealt with in Parliament
by means of a Bill. As a matter of fact the Government
had intended to deal with it in Parliament, but the knowledge
that the Opposition in the Upper House would not approve
the proposal induced the Government to make the payment
without obtaining the assent of that House. Notwithstand-
ing these dicta of the Supreme Court the Transvaal Govern-
ment proceeded to ask the Governor to issue a special
warrant for the sanctioning of the payment of the amount
in question. When the warrant was issued the Legislature
had risen, and therefore the objection by the Chief Justice
that the Legislature was in session when the payment was
made did not apply, strictly speaking, to the signing of
the warrant. The action of the Administrator was much
questioned, and the matter was brought before the Imperial
Parliament, when the Under-Secretary of State accepted for
his chief full responsibility for the action of the Adminis-
trator, who it appeared had telegraphed home for instructions
and had received authority to sign the warrant. In the
House of Commons on June 29, the defence of the Adminis-
trator’s action was based by the Under-Secretary of State
on the grounds that he had signed on the advice of ministers,
and that as the Audit Act defined Governor in that Act to
mean Governor in Council! the Administrator was bound
to act on the advice of his ministers, and could not act
otherwise. It was not made quite clear whether the Under-
Secretary of State considered that he must always act on the
advice of his ministers, or whether he merely held that the case
was not one in which it would have been justifiable to decline
to accept advice. The matter seemed so unsatisfactory to
Lord Northcote that he raised the question in the House of
Lords on July 25, and Lord Crewe gave a more complete
! The Union Interpretation Act, No. 5 of 1910,similarly defines Governor-
General to mean in all cases Governor-General in Council. This is an
inconvenient definition, but follows Cape Act No. 5 of 1883.
