578 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART III 
1892.1 the Governor sent home a reference from his ministers, 
in which they appealed to the Secretary of State for a decision 
between them and the Governor on the question at issue. 
The Ministry in this memorandum mentioned the facts and 
pointed out that the Governor had declined to accept their 
recommendation, though offering to appoint nine members. 
They proceeded *— 
Ministers would point out that the Parliament is in session, 
and they are answerable to the House of Representatives 
for the advice tendered to his Excellency. It has been 
alleged that they ought to have resigned when their advice 
was declined, but they relied on the constitutional practice 
as expressed in Todd’s Parliamentary Government in the 
British Colonies, 1880, p. 590, which is as follows : ‘ They 
would be responsible for the advice they gave, but could not 
strictly be held accountable for their advice not having 
prevailed ; for, if it be the right and duty of the Governor 
to act in any case contrary to the advice of his ministers, 
they cannot be held responsible for his action, and should 
not feel themselves justified in retiring from the adminis- 
tration of public affairs.’ 
Ministers are of opinion that the responsibility of appoint- 
ments to the Council should have rested with the responsible 
advisers of his Excellency, and that the refusal to accept their 
advice is in derogation of the rights and privileges of a self- 
governing Colony. In this case his Excellency is placed in 
the position of acting without advice, unless it be the advice 
of persons who are not responsible, and withdraws from those 
responsible the confidence which the constitution requires 
him to repose in them, upon the inadequate ground that 
nine are preferable to twelve additions to the Council. 
It is further to be observed that while the advice of a 
Government that had just been defeated at a general 
election was accepted, the advice of a Ministry enjoying the 
confidence of a large majority of the representatives of 
the peopleis declined. Ministers, in fact, are impelled to the 
conclusion that the way in which their advice has been treated 
is more in harmony with the methods of a Crown Colony than 
with the practice followed in a great self-governing Colony 
which has long enjoyed the advantages of a free constitution 
and a wide autonomy within the limits of the Empire. 
The Governor in his covering dispatch argued that it was 
i Parl, Pap., H.C, 198, 1893-4, p. 17.