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

cap. 11] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 807 In a dispatch of February 16, 1907, the Secretary of State communicated to the Governor of South Australia the de- cision of His Majesty’s Government that it was not possible to admit the states to the Colonial Conference. His Majesty’s Government did not wish to discuss the complicated question of the balance of Commonwealth and state powers; but they felt bound to point out that the establishment of the Commonwealth had so affected the constitutional position that there remained from that point of view no real analogy between the State of South Australia and the Colony of Natal. South Australia had already surrendered some of the most characteristic attributes and functions of self- government, and might at any moment surrender others. Defence, customs and excise, post and telegraphs, immigra- tion, naturalization, over-sea trade and commerce, had all become subject to the paramount control of the Federal Parliament, while Natal could still exercise control over all these subjects. The Commonwealth in exercising its powers was not an agent of the states, it derived its authority direct from the same sources as the states—legally, from the Imperial Parliament ; politically, from the will of the people. From the former point of view neither states nor Common- wealth were agents or delegates even of the Imperial Parlia- ment ; from the latter both alike represented the people of Australia but for different purposes. The matter at issue; therefore, resolved itself into the question whether the purposes of the Colonial Conference were included in the purposes for which the people of Australia had chosen to be represented by the Commonwealth. In point of fact the great majority of the subjects were matters which were now in effect the business of the Commonwealth alone, and there- fore His Majesty’s Government could not arrange for the separate representation of the states at the forthcoming Conference. Their decision implied no failure to appreciate the importance of the states or the necessity for inviting and fully considering the opinions of the States Governments within their own spheres, but no other decision could be See Cd. 3340, pp. 30 seq.

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