370 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART III
Again, the Colonial Legislatures are, like the British Parlia-
ment,! truly representative bodies, not delegates of the
electorate in any sense. There was some feeling when the
Commonwealth Parliament increased its pay to £600 from
£400 in 1907 without any previous consultation of the
electorate, and South Australia in 1910 made the increase
dependent on the will of the people at a referendum which
was taken in April 1911. Western Australia again in 1910
proposed to provide that the increase should only be effective
from the beginning of the next Parliament, but Tasmania
boldly fixed on January 1, 1911, as the date for the new
provision operating under Act No. 53 of 1910, and Western
Australia adopted that date also. Again, the Ontario Legis-
lature in 1901 prolonged for a couple of months the term of
its existence despite some protests,? and their action is not
isolated. The remedy for any wrong action is the will of
the people at the next election, and that must be relied upon
if anything is to be found a check.
There is no tendency in the Colonies to introduce a refer-
sndum in the Swiss sense of the word, or to solve thus their
difficulties. For deadlocks between the two Houses referenda
are prescribed in the Commonwealth in cases of disagree-
ments as to the Constitution only, just as all amendments
of the Constitution require referenda to confirm the action of
Parliament. In Queensland the procedure may, by Act No. 16
of 1908, be adopted in any case of a deadlock between
the Houses, but a similar proposal in New South Wales was
indignantly repudiated in 1910 by the Labour party and
the project was dropped. No other state has adopted it, nor
is it known in New Zealand or in Canada, Newfoundland, or
South Africa. The constitutional referendum has been used
in the Commonwealth already on five? occasions, and South
Australiaheldin 1911areferendum on the question of members’
Y Cf. Mr. Churchill in House of Commons, February 22, 1911; Lord
Morley in House of Lords, March 28, July 4, 1911.
' See Canadian Annual Register, 1901, p. 429,
¢ In 1906 as to date of Senate election (see Act No. 1 of 1907) ; in 1909
45 to state debts (Act No. 3 of 1910) and as to payments to states (rejected) ;
in 1911 as to industrial powers, and nationalisation of monopolies (rejected).
