car. 11] THE GOVERNOR AND MINISTERS 157 
given in the case of the Transvaal and the Orange River 
Colony because the powers were given in express words in 
the letters patent constituting the Legislature. Ibis difficult 
to think that the words are really needed, but no exception 
was taken to them by Mr. Blake in 1876 as regards the 
Dominion, though they have been criticized severely as 
regards the Commonwealth, as being needless and useless. 
Tt is true that the provisions seem purposeless in so far as 
they grant powers already conceded by law, and it is difficult 
to see much purpose served by their inclusion. 
Some of the clauses are peculiarly objectionable as they 
stand. For example, it was absurd to empower the Governor 
of the Cape to make laws with the aid of the two houses : 
he was given that power by the royal Order in Council of 
May 23, 1850, and this power has never since been capable 
of revocation by the Crown, so that to include it in letters 
patent, the power to revoke which is expressly reserved, is 
not desirable. So again it has never been open to the Crown, 
since the commission granted to the Governor in 1832 con- 
stituting a legislature for Newfoundland, to revoke the power 
of legislation given to that body, and the inclusion of the 
power in the letters patent of Newfoundland is open to 
objection as they also are liable to change. On the other 
hand, the provision as to the constitution of the Council in 
those letters patent is legitimate, for there isno provision of 
law or constitutional rule providing for the number. In the 
other cases, as, for example, that of New Zealand, where the 
powers in question are all given by the Constitution Act to 
the Governor, the repetition of them is only meaningless. 
Other clauses are no longer inserted in the instruments, 
such as those, formerly normal, delegating to the Governor 
the power of granting marriage licences, probate of wills, 
letters of administration, the custody of idiots, and so forth. 
All these matters are regulated by local law, and the grant 
of prerogative powers is neither requisite nor useful? and 
Mr. Blake’s advice in favour of their removal was properly 
1 See Harrison Moore, Commonwealth of Australia ®, pp. 300 seq. ; cf. 
Canada Sess. Pap., 1877, No. 13. See above, p. 104. 
* Under the Foreign Marriages Act, 1892, the Governor has a statutory