1026 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PARTY
Governor on the other, and if a state or Dominion desires
these results—which need not really affect efficiency of guber-
natorial control, for a young man may take the office as a
stepping-stone to greater things—there can be no real ground
of objection. In the case of the Australian states it has been
thought from time to time in the state that a reduction of
salary will result in the Imperial Government assenting to
the desire to see local men appointed to the posts, but that
is another matter, and, as pointed out by Lord Crewe to
the Premier of South Australia, it could only be adopted
as part of a deliberate policy, which, as the Secretary of
State clearly indicated, would mean the reduction of the
states to the position of the Canadian Provinces, which in
theory is that of subjection to the central Government. In
the case of Natal, the Imperial Government insisted in 1892
on the salary for the first Governor under responsible govern-
ment being. fixed at £4,000 to begin with instead of the
£3,000 proposed by the Committee of the Legislative Council
which drafted the Act for responsible government.
§ 5. BILLS AFFECTING ABSENTEES
The intervention of the Imperial Government in cases
affecting the rights of persons not resident in the Dominion
in which legislation is passed is reduced to the narrowest
limits, and only Bills of a very extraordinary character could
possibly be dealt with on this ground ; it is, of course, open to
the Imperial Government to press for fair treatment of such
persons, and it has done so whenever the case seemed to
require it, but the right of representation in such cases is not
more than could be used to a friendly foreign power, as it
is not contemplated to enforce the power of disallowance.
A good example of the principles which have animated the
Imperial Government in this regard, and of its freedom from
the desire usually imputed to it to interfere in the affairs
of the Dominions, is seen in its action with regard to the
Act passed by Canada in 1874 to regulate the construction
and maintenance of marine electric cables. This Act was
reserved by the Governor-General for the signification of
