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

938 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV In Canada opinion seems on all sides completely opposed to measures like the referendum ; it has never been seriously proposed as a solution for deadlocks between the Upper House (which is limited in point of members, and cannot therefore be swamped) and the House of Commons, and when proposed for the purpose of reviewing measures of Parliament in the case of Ontario in 1905, the Premier emphatically declined to have anything to do with it on the ground that it was inconsistent with responsible government, a fact which can hardly be disputed.t It may not be out of place to observe that the referendum in both Canada and Australia has been quite unable normally to secure adequate voting on the part of those to whom it is submitted. Thus, even in the case of the refer- enda for the establishment of the Commonwealth Govern- ment, when the utmost efforts were made to arouse the interest of the electors, the vote was about 50 per cent. of the possible voters, considerably less than the average vote at ordinary elections. This result is presumably due to the difficulty of interesting electors in ‘matters comparatively abstract when divorced from personalities, and it should be noted that the first three referenda held under the Commeon- wealth Constitution Act took place simultaneously with the general elections, so that almost necessarily a com- paratively large vote was secured. The referenda which took place in April 1911 showed that in the absence of the excite- ment of a general election large numbers of voters cannot oe induced to vote, and that they found it difficult to under- stand the issues. There are few figures available of the cost of a referendum, for the reason that most Commonwealth referenda have been held contemporaneously with a general election, so that no separate figures of cost could be obtained, but a preliminary vote of £40,000 was placed on the Common- wealth estimate for the referenda in April 1911, and the cost was about £50,000. It may be added that for constitutional purposes referenda without statutory authority are useless. In South Australia under a resolution of the Assembly of Dec. 22, 1898, a refer- endum was taken in April 1899 to ascertain the views of the electors on the extension of the Council franchise to all householders as provided in the Assembly Bill of 1898. The votes were: for, 49,208 ; against, 33,928; informal, 11,015; 61-78 voted, but the affirmative vote did not result in any concession then by the Council. ! Canadian Annual Review, 1905, Dp. 266.

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