ouap.1] POWERS OF DOMINION PARLIAMENTS 357
>f a limited discretion entrusted by the Legislature to per-
sons in whom it places confidence, is no uncommon thing ;
and in many circumstances it may be highly convenient.
The British Constitution book abounds with examples of it,
and it cannot be supposed that the Imperial Parliament did
not, when constituting the Indian Legislature, contemplate
this kind of conditional legislation as within the scope of the
legislative powers which it granted.
The same principle was also laid down in the case of
Hodge v. The Queen. In that case it was held by the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council that the powers possessed
by the Provincial Legislatures, under s. 92 of the British
North America Act, were not in any sense to be exercised
by delegation from, or as agents of the Imperial Parliament,
but that they had authority as plenary, and as ample within
the limits prescribed, as the Imperial Parliament in the
plentitude of its power possessed and could bestow.. Within
the area and limits of subjects mentioned in that section,
the Provincial Legislatures were supreme and had the
same authority as the Imperial Parliament, or the Dominion
Parliament would have in like circumstances to bestow on
a municipal institution or body of its own creation authority
to make by-laws or regulations as to subjects specified in
the enactment, and with the object of carrying the enact-
ment into operation and effect.
It was held that the Ontario Legislature had power to
sntrust to a Board of Commissioners, authority to enact
regulations in the nature of by-laws and municipal regula-
tions of a merely local character for the good government
of taverns.
The same principle was enunciated once more in the case
of Powell v. The Apollo Candle Company? where the question
raised was as to the power of the Legislature of New South
Wales to delegate to the Executive authority to impose and
levy duties. The Supreme Court of New South Wales held
that the Legislature could not delegate its powers, but the
Privy Council reversed that decision and laid it down that
t 9 App. Cas, 117.
3 10 App. Cas. 282.
