812 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [part 1V
that no steps were taken to deal with them effectively until
1910, when in conjunction with the Navigation Bill a Bill
to provide for the Commonwealth control was introduced,
but held over until the Navigation Bill could be passed
in 1911. In the case of quarantine the Commonwealth
legislated in 1908 in a somewhat unusual manner, for the
Act does not contemplate the total cesser of quarantine
measures by the state authorities, but rather a scheme for
co-operation, and the Act takes wider power than ever taken
under the head of a quarantine Act for the stamping out of
diseases of animals, plants, and persons, whenever introduced
into or breaking out in the state or Commonwealth ; it
transpired while the Bill was passing through Parliament that
the Act was in some of these regards wlira vires, but the
matter is a doubtful one, and the advantage of Commonwealth
control is obvious and will probably render the states indis-
posed to take steps against the Act. It is still open to the
states to take action against plant diseases by excluding
plants from other states, and Tasmania, Western and South
Australia have done so.
§ 4. THE LEGISLATIVE POWER OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND
THE STATES
The division of legislative power between the Common-
wealth and the state is affected by ss. 106 and 107 of the
Constitution, which continue the powers of the states save as
altered in the Act, and by the following sections of the Act
defining the legislative power of the Commonwealth. To
these fall to be added the powers of the Parliament as to
electoral matters, the franchise and so forth, the financial
powers considered below, the power as to the judicature, and
the powers as to the appointment of federal officers given
by s. 67. It should be noted also that by s. 5 of the Constitu-
tion Act, the laws of the Commonwealth have an extra-
territorial effect, being in force in all British ships, the King’s
ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and port
of destination are in the Commonwealth.
4 Cf. Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill, pp. 142, 160; Com.
