822 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV
The High Court reversed the decision of the Supreme
Court. The questions at issue were, in their opinion :—
1. Whether the Tasmanian Stamp Act should be con-
strued as applying in terms to receipts given by Common-
wealth officers for their salaries ; and
2. If so, whether such a law was within the competence of
the State Legislature.
On the second head it was contended for the appellant
that the Act, if so construed, operated as an interference by
way of taxation with the federal agency ; that it attempted
to impose a condition which must be complied with by an
officer before he could receive the salary allotted to him by
the Commonwealth ; that such a condition could not be
constitutionally imposed by a state ; that the imposition of
a stamp duty on the receipt for a federal salary was in effect
taxation of the federal salary, which was not within the
competence of the state ; that the receipt was the property
of the Commonwealth, and therefore not taxable under the
Constitution ; and further, that the Act so construed would
be inconsistent with the Federal Appropriation Act, by
which the officer’s salary was fixed.
The Court pointed out with regard to the last contention
that the Appropriation Act did not fix the salaries of public
officers, but merely authorized the payment of lump sums
specified in the schedules. With regard to the contention
that the receipt was the property of the Commonwealth
within the meaning of s. 114 of the Constitution, they held
that it was not property of the kind intended in that section,
which appeared rather to refer to taxation gua property.
With regard to the other ground of objection, the Court
laid stress upon the fact that where any power or control
was granted, there was included in the grant, to the full
extent of the capacity of the grantor and without special
mention, every power and every control, the denial of which
would render the grant itself ineffective. This they held
was a statement of a necessary rule of construction of all
grants of power, and applied from the necessity of the case
to all to whom was committed the exercise of powers of
