Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 1)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896934455

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-236504

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 1

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: LI, 568 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. The executive Government

Collection:: Economics Books

252 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II Lord Granville appears to consider expenditure without parliamentary sanction justifiable on two grounds only— Ist, on the ground of necessity, 2nd, on the ground of expediency accompanied by a reasonable presumption that both branches of the Legislature will subsequently approve of the expenditure. Nevertheless, in the very case under consideration, Lord Granville, even if he does not directly censure, at least expressly prohibits for the future the course taken by Lord Belmore in having, upon the advice of his ministers under sircumstances of great emergency, assented to an expenditure which, although not strictly legal, had been sanctioned by the Legislative Assembly, both by resolution and by Bill, and to which, although the Bill for the purpose had by a mere inadvertence failed to pass the Legislative Council, there could be no doubt whatever that the sanction of that body would have been afterwards obtained. Without further dwelling, however, upon this apparent discrepancy between principles laid down and the application of those principles by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, [ invite the serious attention of my colleagues to the probable affect of these instructions, and to the embarrassments in which the present or any future Government of this Colony might be thereby involved. We see that in a case where every constitutional step was taken, excepting the final step of obtaining the technical consent of the Upper Chamber, in a case of such ‘ emergency ’ that delay on the part of the Executive might have been dangerous to the public interest, the Secretary of State’s disapproval of the course adopted is scarcely withheld, while his injunction against its repetition is peremptorily imposed. It then becomes a grave question whether by prohibitory instructions to the Governor of this kind the free action of responsible government in this Colony is not liable to be. seriously impeded ; whether our position and functions as Responsible Advisers of his Excellency, and ministers responsible to Parliament, are not interfered with by the Secretary of State so as to affect the principle of Colonial independence. Lord Granville seems to have overlooked the fact that the action of the Executive Council in cases like that referred to is not that of the Governor alone, but the joint action of the Governor and his Responsible Advisers. The Governor, no doubt, is responsible to the Imperial (Government, but his advisers are responsible to the Parlia- ment of this Colony, and to bind the Governor by thus

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