Caar. v] THE PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURE 457 
other powers.! But this is clearly wrong : the power to alter 
the constitution would of course enable it to take larger 
powers, but even without this it may safely be said that 
every legislature which is not restricted in the sphere of its 
powers is able to lay down what privileges it desires to lay 
down. It may be objected to this view that in the cases of 
Canada the privileges are expressly placed within the power 
of the Parliament. But the case is not merely that the privi- 
leges are placed within the power, but they are also expressly 
limited in extent, and further, it may have been, as was 
suggested in the case of Fielding v. Thomas by counsel, that 
the right was conferred in express terms upon the Dominion 
and not upon the provinces, because the matter was one of 
civil rights, and therefore prima faciereserved to the provinces 
exclusively of the power of the Dominion Parliament. 
Another and probable view is that the provisions were in- 
cluded simply because they form part of a constitution, and 
should be placed in a Constitution Act, just as has been done 
in Queensland, which enacted the provisions independently 
in a local Act, and later incorporated them with the Consti- 
tution Act of 1867. In the case of the Union of South Africa 
the insertion of the clauses is again justified in a different 
way : in each case the privileges to be possessed were defined 
in the Acts, and thus rendered legislation merely optional 
instead of necessary, as in cases like Canada, Victoria, 
South Australia, and Western Australia, and Natal, where 
the privileges are merely taken generally to be laid down by 
Act of Parliament, but are not to exceed those of the House 
of Commons.2 
! In New Zealand the Parliamentary Privileges Act, 1865, expressly 
repealed s. 52 of the Constitution Act, which gave power to make orders, 
but with limited effect. 
* Victoria and South Australia are prevented from taking further privi- 
leges than those enjoyed by the Commons at the date of their constitutions, 
until they formally alter these instruments. Canada was relieved from this 
restriction and given power to take the Commons’ privileges from time to 
time by the Act of 1875, and Western Australia and Natal took the latter 
power in their constitutions, and so has South Africa by Act No. 19 of 
1911, s. 86. It should be noted, however, that Natal voluntarily restricted 
itself to the standard of 1893 by Act No. 27 of 1895, s. 21.