Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 2)

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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:: 1896935052

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-238139

Document type:: Volume

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

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 2

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XI Seiten, Seiten 570-1100

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VIII. The constitutional relations of the houses

Collection:: Economics Books

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.

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