CHAP. vir] RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES 635 Upper House, both parties asserting their position, but the question being disposed. of by concessions on either side.! The Senate can clearly amend? a Bill so as to increase expenditure, as it did in the case of the Property for Public Purposes Acquisition Act, 1901, where the rate of interest tobe paid by the Commonwealth was increased to 3} per cent. from 3 per cent. only.3 It was, however, much disputed over the Sugar Bounty Act in 1903, whether the Upper House could lake the bounties on sugar retrospective, and so increase by amendment the burden on the people. It was argued by the Upper House that Appropriation Bills were subject to alteration just as expenditure Bills were, and that the increase of the burdens of the people did not result from an amend- Tent of the appropriation, but from an Act to impose taxation which might be the result, and which they could Dot amend. But in point of fact the matter was settled by the withdrawal of the amendment, and the substitution of & request, and that and other cases in connexion with the Customs tarift have shown that though where the Upper House can amend it cannot increase the burden on the people, Where it can only suggest it can suggest what it likes. Further difficulties suggest themselves for consideration. In 1901 objection was taken to the introduction of non- Tecurrent items in the ordinary Appropriation Act, as, for °%ample, the outlay in connexion with the royal visit in that year, and the matter was then disposed of on the ground that the Appropriation Act should contain, as all Such Acts in the Colonies had done, such expenditure as Would normally be submitted in connexion with estimates of the year for each department? Tn 1910 there was a new , Parliamentay Debates, 1908, pp, 11437 seq., 11588 seq. An analogous attempt in Now South Wales failed ; see Parliamentary Debates, 1910, Sess. 2, pp. 1316, 1440. * Harrison Moore, Commonwealth of Australia,® p. 150. : * Parliamentary Debates, 1903, pp. 1691-1703, 1821-60, 2013-34, 2076-8, 2364-418, 2469 gg, * Ibid, 1901, pp. 1310 seq. The Public Works Act, 1900, ss. 28 and 31 of New South Wales requires that any public work costing over £20,000 faust be approved by Act of Parliament (the Council having a free hand to