car. 111] REPUGNANCY OF COLONIAL LAWS 407
the Act of the old Legislative Council, No. 2, 1855-6. Upon
the invalidity of other and subsequent South Australian
Acts, some of them intimately connected with the Constitu-
tional Act, we have already expressed our opinion on another
case submitted to us, and an Imperial Act has been passed
to remedy their defects.
9. We understand that the express mention of New South
Wales and Van Dieman’s Land in the 29th section of the
13 & 14 Vict. ¢. 59, so far as relates to courts of justice, was
or may have been considered to be rendered necessary by
Imperial legislation on the subject of the courts of justice of
those Colonies previous to the passing of that Act, and that no
similar legislation had taken place with respect to courts of
justice in South Australia. Under these circumstances we
see no reason to doubt the power of the South Australian
Legislature to constitute courts of justice.
10. We deem it to be the duty of a single judge in any
particular case, generally speaking, to conform his own
judgement to the decision on the same point of the Supreme
Court of which he is a member. Such is the practice of
single judges in the United Kingdom, and a departure from
it, unless under extraordinary circumstances, would, as it
seems to us, be highly inconvenient.
11. We have already answered this question in the affirma-
tive, and would only add that we do not think it expedient
to go further in the way of new Imperial legislation than is
proposed to be done in the Bill now before Parliament.
The unhappy Colony was still to have another experienco
of invalidity on the ground of repugnancy, for while the
Acts in question were validated, another serious blunder was
made with regard to a subsequent Electoral Act of 1861,
though reserved, by not seeing that the statutory majorities
in the two Houses had been observed as required by s. 34 of the
Constitution Act itself. The Acts subsequent to the operation
of the Electoral Act were thus all invalid, and required to be
validated, and moreover, the judges were inclined to believe
that the Legislature could not alter its constitution as a
whole.! An attempt was made to settle the question by the
passing of the Act 26 & 27 Vict. c. 84.2 But the Act was of
See Blackmore, Constitution of South Australia, p. 60.
South Australia Parl. Pap., 1863, Nos. 23, 129, 130.