THE JUDICIARY [PART VI 
land that the matter should be laid before the Judicial 
Committee. 
In 1872 it was proposed that the question of the education 
legislation of New Brunswick, which was alleged to infringe 
the terms of the British North America Act by limiting the 
rights granted to Roman Catholics under the terms of that 
Act, should be referred to the Privy Council for an expression 
of their opinion, but the Lord President of the Council 
pointed out that the matter was not a suitable one for such 
reference, and the advice of the Privy Council on a matter 
which might come before them later on in an appeal could 
not properly be given. There was also in that case no 
agreement by the Legislature of New Brunswick that the 
matter should be so considered.! In 1878, when the Govern- 
ment of Quebec asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies 
to refer to the Judicial Committee a legal question whether 
it was the right of the Governor or Governor in Council to 
remove a Lieutenant-Governor in a Canadian province, the 
Secretary of State likewise declined to accede to the request, 
on the broad general grounds that the matter was not one 
in which an agreement for reference had been made between 
the two Governments, and as no decision so given could be 
binding it would not be possible to proceed as proposed.? 
It is also proposed to refer to the Judicial Committee of 
the Privy Council, in due course, the disagreements between 
the Governments of Canada and Newfoundland with regard 
to the boundary of the two Colonies in Labrador. On the 
other hand, in the case of the dispute as to the boundary 
between Victoria and South Australia it is not proposed to 
1384 
Law Officers, not to the Privy Council, by the Secretary of State ; hence 
wild indignation on the part of Mr. Higinbotham, though the Law Officers 
decided in his favour ; see above, chap. i: Victoria Parl. Pap., 1864-5, B. 
34, C. 2, 1866, Sess. 2, C. 8. 
1 See Parl. Pap., C. 2445, p. 121. Again, the Canadian Government 
declined to agree to the Secretary of State’s desire to refer to the Privy 
Council the question of the rights of the British Columbia Government 
under its agreement with the Federal Government as to the Pacific railway ; 
see Canada Sess. Pap., 1885, No. 34. 
3 Parl. Pap., C. 2445, p. 121, Cf. also C. 5489, pp. 13, 14.