452 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART ITI
but in substance re-enacted by c. 42) was allowed to stand,
but in 1874 there was again a disallowance, this time of
a Manitoba Act (36 Vict. c. 2); and in 1876 there was fresh
legislation, and this time not disallowed, in both Ontario
(39 Vict. c. 9) and Manitoba (39 Vict. c. 12). In Landers v.
Woodworth, while, as noted above, negativing the power of
a legislature without express statutory authority to punish
for a contempt which did not actually obstruct business, the
Supreme Court of Canada in 1878 expressly said: ‘The
Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec seem to have conferred
on the House of Assembly in these provinces extensive
powers to enable them effectively to exercise their high func-
tions and discharge the important duties cast upon them.
It may be necessary still further to extend their powers.
The legislatures of the other provinces will probably consider
it desirable to take the same course, and in that way unmis-
takably place these tribunals in the position of dignity and
power which it is desirable they should possess.’ The
decision had been anticipated by the Legislature of Nova
Scotia by c. 22 of 1876, which gave both Houses the same
privileges as the Houses of the Dominion Parliament, and
both this Act and the Ontario and Manitoba Acts were left
to their operation. The Minister of Justice of Canada
evidently was strongly in favour of the view that they were
invalid, but he did not go beyond recommending that the
attention of the Government of Nova Scotia should be drawn
to the provisions of the Act deemed undesirable, with a view
to their amendment.! But Nova Scotia, having obtained
the Act it desired, had no intention of altering it. The
other provinces also passed Acts regarding the privileges of
the legislatures, New Brunswick? and Prince Edward Island?
in 1890, Alberta ® and Saskatchewan’ being of course the
latest to do so. In British Columbia, by c. 47 of the Revised
Statutes the privileges of the House are not to exceed those
of the British House of Commons.
! Canada Sess. Pap., 1877, No. 89, pp. 108-14, 201.
* 53 Viet. ¢. 6. Cf. 33 Vict. c. 33; Revised Statutes, 1903, c. 5.
* 53 Vict. c. 4, 5. 110; 56 Vict. c. 1, ss. 8-11; 8 Edw. VIL c. 1, 8s, 8-11.
$1909, c. 2, % 1908. c. 4.
