138 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PaRT iI 
receive a pardon after conviction, but it is a striking case 
of the difficulty which a Governor may incur if he acts on 
the advice of ministers in a manner which is criminal. In 
a recent case in Natal in 1906 the magistrate declined to 
issue process against the Governor of Natal.l 
$9. THE GOVERNOR'S LIABILITY To MANDAMUS 
The question of the liability of the Governor of a state 
to the issue of a mandamus was decided in the case of The 
King v. The Governor of the State of South Australia? which 
came in 1907 before the High Court of the Commonwealth. 
The question arose out of a disputed return for an election 
of senators for the State of South Australia, at the end of 1906. 
Of the three candidates who were returned at the election, 
the election of one was declared by the High Court, as a Court 
of Disputed Returns, to be void, and accordingly on July 2, 
1907, the Governor forwarded a message to the Legislative 
Council and the Legislative Assembly of the state, informing 
them of the vacancy in the representation of the state in the 
Senate, and saying that he was advised that the vacancy 
should be filled by the Houses of Parliament sitting together, 
as laid down by s. 15 of the Commonwealth Constitution for 
the case when the place of a senator had become vacant 
hefore the expiration of his time of office. 
It was contended by supporters of the unseated senator, 
Mr. Vardon, that a fresh election should be held, and that 
the appointment should not be made by the Houses of 
Parliament ; but despite the protest, the Houses of Parlia- 
ment at a joint sitting on the 11th of July elected Mr. J. V. 
O’Loghlin to fill the vacancy. An order nisi for a mandamus 
to the Governor was then granted by the High Court on 
the ground that a new election ought to have been held, 
' Cf. Parl. Pap., Cd. 4403, p. 129. 
'4 C. L. R. 1497. Curiously enough, the Court of British Guiana in 
1907 had the same issue before it in the shape of an attempt to mandamus 
a Governor to grant a certain concession in respect of rubber-bearing lands. 
It inclined to think a mandamus would lie, but held that the law gave the 
Governor an absolute discretion, and so did not decide the point.