800 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV
That appears to me the obvious meaning of s. 3 of the Act,
which declares that on and after a day appointed by proclamation
 ‘ the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South
Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her
Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia
have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united
in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth
 of Australia’,
On that day Australia became one single entity, and no
longer six separate states in the family of nations under the
British Crown, and the external responsibility of Australia,
except in regard to matters in respect to which a later date
was fixed by the constitution, vested immediately in the
Commonwealth, which was armed with the paramount power
necessary to discharge it.
The consequence is, that in respect of all matters declared
by the Constitution Act to be matters of federal concern,
the immediate responsibility to His Majesty’s Government
rests upon the Federal Government. Whether the Federal
Government and Parliament make special federal provision
for the discharge of any part of that responsibility, or are
content to leave it for the time to the state machinery already
in existence, is entirely a matter of internal arrangement,
and does not warrant His Majesty’s Government in ignoring
the fact that in the creation of the Commonwealth Parliament
has, in compliance with the will of the people of Australia,
devolved the responsibility upon the federal authority.
The sphere within which His Majesty’s Government
should communicate with the Federal Government is coextensive
 with the responsibility and power of the Commonwealth.
 There does not appear to be anything in the
constitution which would justify them in limiting it, as
contended by your ministers, to matters connected with
departments actually transferred, or matters upon which
the Commonwealth Parliament has power to make laws,
and has made laws. Nor can I accept the view that in all
matters not connected with departments transferred to the
Commonwealth, or upon which the Commonwealth Parliament
 has not legislated, the relations which existed between
the States and the Imperial Government before federation
have been preserved by the constitution.
The powers of the states have, it is true, been preserved,
but the immediate responsibility to His Majesty’s Government
 for their exercise in federal matters has been transferred
to the Commonwealth.