cuar. vl THE GOVERNOR AND THE LAW 249 
indeed it is possible to make distinctions of degree between 
sinners all so wicked. From 1858 onwards the custom there 
was to pay out sums in anticipation of Parliamentary 
sanction on the strength of the warrant of the Governor, 
and in a dispatch of September 30, 1868, the Secretary of 
State for the Colonies, on the application of the Governor, 
Lord Belmore, gave a reasoned opinion on the propriety of 
the practice and the limits within which it could be carried 
out. The dispatch runs :—2 
[ have to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship’s 
Despatch of the 17th of June, in which you desire instruc- 
tions as to whether it is competent for you to exercise the 
discretionary power legally and constitutionally which the 
Governors of New South Wales have done during the last 
10 years with regard to approving of Executive sanction 
being given in anticipation of Parliament appropriation, to 
such payments as are referred to in the third paragraph of 
your Despatch. 
The payments mentioned in the third paragraph are called 
for when the amount appropriated for any particular service 
has proved to be insufficient, or an item may have been 
casually omitted, or some unforeseen emergency has arisen. 
I apprehend that you cannot legally exercise a power of 
expending moneys without an Appropriation Act, and that 
you would prima facie be bound to refuse to sign a warrant 
sanctioning any expenditure of public money which has not 
been authorised by law. 
But as in England, so in New South Wales, cases of 
supreme emergency may arise, when it may be impossible 
to adhere to the strict and proper rule without detriment to 
the public interest, and when the Government at home takes 
upon itself the responsibility of sanctioning such expenditure. 
Such are cases where a service voted requires more money 
than has been voted, or where some wholly unforeseen 
contingency arises of too urgent a nature to allow of the 
required expenditure being previously submitted to Parlia- 
ment for their sanction. 
Cases of this kind must be dealt with by the Governor 
on the responsibility of his ministers, and he must exercise 
his own judgment upon a careful consideration of all the 
circumstances brought under his notice by those ministers. 
[ shall not attempt to give you more definite instructions 
* Parl. Pap., C. 2173, p. 117; of. Rusden, Australia, iii. 499 seq.