car. vir] CABINET SYSTEM IN DOMINIONS 307

of a minister of course does not vacate a seat, or the
acceptance of another post, or of two portfolios.
Elsewhere the practice varies ; for example, in New South
Wales in 19062 the rule of non-re-election was adopted, and
it has always been in force in South Australia and New
Zealand ; it is now in force in Tasmania and in Queensland.
In the Cape, the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, and
Natal it was never introduced, and the Union of South Africa,
like the Commonwealth, follows the same model. In the other
states it remains in force, but it may be hoped that it will not
be perpetuated. It has indeed been atgued by Mr. Todd? that
it tends to stability of government by diminishing the otherwise
 constant changes of administrators of departments, and
in the case of the Commonwealth there may be something in
this, but there is really nothing else substantial in favour
of so troublesome and so expensive a course of action.

§ 2. THE PrIME MINISTER AND THE CABINET
The rules as to the Cabinet are much the same as in
England ; the Prime Minister chooses his colleagues,except in
the case of Labour parties in Australia, where in Mr. Fisher’s
Ministry of 1908 and 1910 the caucus have asserted the right
to select the Ministry,leaving the Prime Minister to assign the
offices! but the result seems substantially in accordance with
the wishes of the Prime Minister; his predecessor, Mr. Watson,
selected his own colleagues. The resignation of the Premier
breaks up a Ministry, and even if there is a reconstruction
and no formal handing over of the offices takes place, the
Government is deemed to have resigned en bloc until the new

! Ontario Act, 1908, c¢. 5, s. 15; Quebec Revised Statutes, 1909,
ss. 147, 148; Nova Scotia, Revised Statutes, 1900, c. 2, s. 19; New
Brunswick, Rev. Stat., 1903, c. 3, s. 12; Manitoba Rev. Stat., 1902, c. 96,
8. 20; Prince Edward Island Act, 1908, c. 1, 8. 25; Saskatchewan Act,
1906, c. 4, 8. 15; Alberta Act, 1909, c. 2, 5. 16.
* Parliamentary Elections Act, 1906,s.60. Cf. the proposals of the Government
 in Western Australia in 1910; Parliamentary Debates, 1910, p. 828.
Re-election is still required in Victoria also.
* Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies,! p. 47..
* Harrison Moore, The Commonwealth of Australia,” pp. xxvi, 168, note La
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