126 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [raRT LIL
detail in the case of Cooper v. Commissioners of Income Tax
for the State of Queensland! decided in 1907 by the High
Court of the Commonwealth.
The question there discussed arose from the refusal of
Sir Pope Cooper, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Queensland, to pay income tax on his judicial salary under
the Queensland Income Tax Consolidated Acts, 1902-4, and
the Income Tax Declaratory Act, 1905.
The claim was based on the fact that the Chief Justice’s
salary was fixed by the Salary Act, 1901, at £2,500, and the
view the provisions of the Constitution Act, 1867, s. 17, provid-
ng that the salaries of Judges of the Supreme Court shall be
paid and payable to each of them during the term of their com-
missions, were an equivalent to an enactment that the salaries
should be paid to the judges without reduction or diminution
throughout their terms of office.
The Legislature of Queensland were empowered to alter
the constitution by express enactment altering or repealing
constitutional provisions. But such powers of alteration
must be exercised in the proper way, and the mere enactment
of provisions inconsistent with the constitution did not
repeal or alter the constitution to the extent of the incon-
sistency. It was argued that therefore the payment of
income tax, if required from judges, was to interpret the
Income Tax Declaratory Act of 1905 in such a manner as to
be repugnant to the Constitution Act, 1867, and that Act,
by virtue of the Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865, overrode
the provisions of the later Act. On the other hand, it was
contended that the Constitution Act of 1867, being merely
an Act of the Queensland Legislature, was of no more effect
than anv other Act of the Legislature. and therefore its terms
(1907) 4 C. L. R. 1304. It should be noted that this decision applies
generally to all cases of change of constitution, and would cover such cases
as e.g. formerly Cape and Natal and now the Canadian Provinces, where
there are not special conditions laid down regarding constitutional changes.
These it holds, and I think rightly, must still be enacted as such. Cf. also
the view of the New Zealand Government in 1866, Parl, Pap., February,
1866, p. 36; and see above, pp. 360, 361.
