806 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
Newfoundland and Natal were to be admitted without 
question. They had no desire to disparage the Common- 
wealth Government or its dignity or importance. They 
were loyal to the principles of federation, but in substance 
the Commonwealth Government was practically an agency 
for the management, under the united control, of the 
customs and excise, postal, and defence departments of the 
six states. The admission of the agent to the Conference and 
the exclusion of the principals was as indefensible from 
a practical point of view as it was from the constitutional 
aspect. The Commonwealth Government had no power to 
represent the states in any matter over which they retained 
legislative and executive jurisdiction, as for example the 
administration of justice, police, municipal and local govern- 
ment, public health, education, poor relief, Crown lands, 
woods and forests, water conservation, irrigation, pastoral, 
agricultural, mineral and manufacturing interests, railway, 
rivers and harbours and lighthouses, and the aborigines. 
Moreover, even in the matters in which the Commonwealth had 
power, the questions for discussion—defence, customs, posts, 
and telegraphs—were of paramount interest to the economic 
working and efficiency of the State Governments. They 
instanced as examples in which the consultation of the states 
was essential, the proposed creation of an Imperial Council, 
an Imperial Court of Appeal, the discussion of immigration, 
and of preferential tariffs! On the other hand, the Prime 
Minister of the Commonwealth criticized the arguments of 
South Australia in detail? He insisted that the purpose of 
federation was to create a new unit entitled to act on behalf 
of Australia as a whole in all matters relating to the interests 
of Australia as a united community. The Imperial Con- 
ferences were primarily if not exclusively for the purpose of 
discussing external relations, and in these matters the states 
of Australia should no more be represented than the pro- 
vinces of Canada. There might be matters on which the 
states should be consulted and conferences held, but they were 
not suitable matters for discussion at Imperial Conferences. 
! See Cd. 3340, pp. 21 seq. ? Ibid., pp. 26 seq.