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:: Part IV. The federations and the union // Chapter II. The commonwealth of Australia

Collection:: Economics Books

cuar. iu] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 799 any inquiries made by the Consul of the Netherlands under the Convention of 1856 ought to have been addressed to the Federal Government. The Secretary of State in a dispatch of November 25, 1902,! gave a reasoned opinion on the whole issue, of which the gist was that the Commonwealth, apart from technical legal considerations, was a new entity for purposes of external affairs, replacing the states in this respect, and that the ques- tion how an obligation of the Commonwealth was to be dealt with locally was not a matter which affected the principle that the obligation was one of the Commonwealth as such, and not of a state. The following is the main portion of his dispatch : My own views on the subject were indicated, as 1 have already pointed out in my telegram of the 1st of October last, by the fact that I addressed the Commonwealth upon the subject of the complaint of the Dutch Government in the first instance, and though I have examined the Memorandum of your ministers with the closest attention, I have not been able to find any sufficient reason to modify them. it is due to your ministers that I should state in as full and frank a manner as that in which they themselves have expressed their views the reasons which have led me to a conclusion different from that which commends itself to them. In the first place, it appears to me that the aim and object of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was not to create merely a new administrative and legislative machinery for the six states united in the Commonwealth, but to merge the six states into one united federal state or Commonwealth furnished with the powers essential to its existence as such. Before the Act came into force each of the separate states, subject, of course, to the ultimate authority of the Imperial Parliament, enjoyed practically all the powers and all the responsibilities of separate nations. By the Act a new state or nation was created armed with paramount power not only to settle the more important internal affairs relating to the common interests of the anited peoples, but also to deal with all political matters arising between them and any other part of the Empire or (through His Majesty’s Government) with any foreign OWer. L Parl. Pap., Cd, 1587, pp. 12-5.

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