470 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [part III 
which Lord Normanby said was probably due to the desire of 
a Speaker not to prevent further consideration, as is the rule in 
England, and which therefore could not be used to prove, as 
Sir George Grey tried to use it, that he had the confidence 
of the House! It would seem, however, that the Speaker 
would do well in such cases to conform to the practice in 
the Imperial Parliament : any other course turns him into 
a partisan, and it is most desirable that no Speaker should 
occupy that position, while the Imperial rule would always 
ensure that the Speaker himself would not be credited with 
responsibility for any decision, and that the House would be 
able to consider freely what course of action it should adopt. 
This rule was recently claimed by the President of the 
Transvaal Legislative Council to have governed his action 
in all cases. In 1874 Mr. Carter’s Ministry in Newfoundland 
was only kept in office by the vote of the Speaker? and on 
what was a vote of censure in 1903 in British Columbia the 
Speaker supported the Government? In 1907 the President 
in the Cape laid down the rule that he should try to have 
funds voted and the Government carried on. 
The Governor-General or Governor has in every case by 
law the power to prorogue or dissolve Parliament besides the 
power to summon it, though the latter power is subject to 
the rule of annual Parliaments and must be exercised in view 
of it. The power is also given in the letters patent, though 
' New Zealand Parl. Pap., 1877, A. 7. 
* Prowse, History of Newfoundland, p. 499. 
} Canadian Annual Review,1903, p. 213. For another case (Cape Speaker, 
in 1897) see Wilmot, South Africa, iii. 331. 
¢ See Legislative Council Debates, 1907, pp. 357 seq. 
See Canada, 30 Vict. c. 3, ss. 20, 38, 50; Ontario and Quebec, ss. 82, 85, 
86; in the Rev. Stat, of all the provinces except Prince Edward Island 
(Act 1893, c. 21; 1908, e. 1), Alberta (Act 1909, c. 2), Saskatchewan (Act 
1908, c. 4) ; Newfoundland, Consol. Stat., c. 2; Commonwealth, 63 & 64 
Vict. c. 12, Const. ss. 5, 6; New South Wales, Act No. 32 of 1902, ss. 10,11 ; 
Victoria, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 55, sched. ss. 28, 29; Queensland, Act 31 Vict. 
No. 38, 85. 3, 12; South Australia, Act No. 2 of 1855-6, 88. 2, 8; Western 
Australia, 53 & 54 Vict. c. 26, sched. ss. 3, 4; Tasmania, 18 Vict. No. 17, 
#8. 4, 5; New Zealand, Consolidated Statutes, 1908, No. 101, s. 14; Union 
of South Africa, 9 Edw. VIL ec. 9, 88. 20, 22, As to prorogation, cf. 
Constitution of New Zealand, pp. 191, 192.