cmap. 11] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 811 
to allow a mandamus to issue to a Governor in Council 
to consider a petition for release from a conviction on the 
grounds that no mandamus lay to the Governor in Council. 
§ 3. Tue EXECUTIVE POWER OF THE COMMONWEALTH 
The executive power of the Commonwealth is very large 
and extends to the maintenance of the Constitution and the 
laws of the Commonwealth. It includes in addition to the 
power conferred by Commonwealth Acts the power sole and 
exclusive over the transferred departments. 
The departments transferred to the Commonwealth con- 
sist of the department of customs and excise, which under 
s. 69 of the Constitution were transferred from January 1, 
1901, the day on which the Constitution commenced to work, 
and those of posts, telegraphs, and telephones, and naval 
and military defence, which were transferred to the Common- 
wealth on March 1, 1901. Lighthouses, lightships, beacons, 
and buovs were so intimatelv associated with navigation 
t See Clark, Australian Constitutional Law, pp. 52-70. He emphasizes 
justly the fact that the whole executive power of the Crown in the 
Commonwealth is recognized, not created by the Act, and he insists that 
the Governor-General possesses under s. 61 all the executive power of the 
Commonwealth, and thats. 2 does not enable the Crown to limit that pre- 
rogative, but refers to the assignment of e.g. powers at international law 
not part of the executive power of the Commonwealth, and future powers 
as to the disposal of which the Crown may have an option. But the real 
main point is probably the grant of the pardon prerogative, which 
Mr. Justice Clark held to be included in the executive power, but in my 
opinion with doubtful accuracy : the international prerogatives could also 
be delegated specially and such minor ‘ prerogatives’ as the right to grant 
the use of the royal arms; cf. Quick and Garran, Constitution of Common- 
wealth, p. 391; 14 V. L. R. 349, at p. 380 (per Higinbotham C.J.). That 
the King himself could not administer the Government is true, and in that 
respect the Federation differs from the Union of South Africa : the position 
of Canada is more doubtful, as the Governor-General’s office is not expressly 
created by the Act, but I agree with Clement, Canadian Constitution, 
pp. 252, 253, that he could not do so. It may be added that it is sometimes 
suggested that the delegation of executive power to the Gavernors-General 
is more complete than that to the Governors e.g. of New Zealand or 
Newfoundland or the states (cf. Clark, p. 63 ; Quick and Garran, p. 390). 
This view is auite unfounded.