398 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
future expenditure but really as a hoard. On the side of 
the Government ! it was replied that the system was perfectly 
legitimate, and that any other would merely be a continuation 
beyond the appropriate time of the old system of book- 
keeping, and would prevent Parliament making any adequate 
provision for the necessities which were plainly looming 
before it. 
The matter was raised in the Courts by the Government 
of New South Wales in connexion with appropriations thus 
made to the credit of trust funds for defence and harbours, 
which were not intended to be expended in the year. New 
South Wales claimed that this was wrong and diminished 
unfairly- the balance due to the state : the High Court? was 
quite clear that the Constitution permitted the Common- 
wealth to debit against the states all appropriations made 
by the Parliament lawfully, whether money had been dis- 
bursed on the ground of such appropriation or not, and 
whether the authority to disburse was one on which the 
Executive could act in that year or not. It was clear that 
they considered that the Commonwealth Government had 
gone to needless trouble in this creation of trust funds. 
The question of the Braddon clause became more and 
more important as the time drew near when its operation 
would determine. It was felt that to leave the states at 
the mercy of the Commonwealth would never do, and various 
schemes were mooted at the eleven conferences which took 
place between 1901 and 1909 between the state ministers 
and on some occasions Commonwealth ministers. It was 
proposed by Sir George Turner, in 1904,% in reply to a resolu- 
tion of the State Premiers adopted in 1904 at Sydney, to 
take over the state debts, in return for the right to use the 
surplus revenue and the retention of the gross railway 
1 Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 1908, pp. 11798 (Mr. Glynn), 
11814 (Mr. Irvine). *7C. LR. 179. 
2 (if. the same question discussed in Queensland Parliamentary Debates, 
i910, pp. 1463 seq., in connexion with the question of the legitimacy 
of a transfer of £50,000 to a trust fund for the University. 
' Victoria Parl. Pavp.. 1904. No. 37.