cHAP. viiT] RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES 607 
for the time being with the services of a number of civil 
servants and minor judicial officers. The Governor reported * 
on the question on January 23, 1878, supporting the views 
of the House of Assembly, and alluded to the difficulty of 
dealing with the Council in view of its powers over finance 
and the absence of power to appoint further members, as 
was possible in the case of nominee Councils. 
On December 31, 1877, the Governor transmitted a 
memorandum by Mr. Graham Berry on the subject of the 
difficulties which had arisen? He pointed out the great 
inconvenience of the rejection of the Appropriation Bill and 
of the Defence Bill; supply would be exhausted early in 
March, when the local forces, the police, the jails, and the 
public service could no longer be paid or maintained, unless 
the Governor would sign warrants for the expenditure 
although Parliament had not voted the money. Moreover, 
there was the possibility of foreign aggression, and the 
Colony would be rendered defenceless by the failure of 
supply. It was therefore urged upon the Governor that 
it had been the practice prior to 1862 to apply public 
money to the services of the year on the report of the 
Committee of Supply to the Assembly, without waiting for 
any other authority. Former Governors habitually signed 
warrants for the issue of public money, although the Council 
had not sanctioned the expenditure. By reverting to the 
former practice (which had been changed by adopting in 
1862 the sending to the Council of Supply Bills though they 
still contained a clause appropriating the amount so voted 
to purposes to be determined by the Legislative Assembly 
in the then session of Parliament), the difficulty of supply 
could be constitutionally avoided. The Solicitor-General of 
Victoria in 1858 was of opinion that the moneys could be 
legally issued from the Treasury, on the ground of custom and 
precedent, on the resolution of the Assembly, and thought 
that this was also the practice of the House of Commons, 
and this opinion was concurred in by the then Attorney- 
General and the law officers of the Colony in 1865 and 1877. 
* Parl. Pap., C. 1982, pp. 31, 43 seq. 2 Thid., pp. 38 seq.