826 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
or interfere with the free exercise of the legislative or executive 
power of the Commonwealth, the attempt, unless expressly 
authorized by the Constitution, was to that extent invalid 
and inoperative. It was held that the salary of a minister 
of the Crown for the Commonwealth or of a member of the 
Commonwealth Parliament, so far as earned in Victoria, 
was not liable to assessment under the Income-Tax Acts of 
Victoria. 
It was also held that the question raised was one as to the 
limits snter se of the constitutional powers of the Common- 
wealth and of a state within the meaning of s. 74 of the 
Constitution, and that the decision of the High Court as to 
the question was final and conclusive unless the High Court 
chose to give a certificate that the matter was one which 
ought to be determined by His Majesty in Council, and the 
High Court considered that this was not a case for such a 
certificate to be granted. 
In a subsequent case, Commonwealth v. New South Wales? 
the Court decided infer alia that if a vendor transferred land 
to the Commonwealth for public purposes under the Act 
of 1901, he was performing a necessary instrumentality of 
the Commonwealth, and the transfer was not liable to be 
hampered by stamp duties under the New South Wales 
Stamp Duties Act. 
In the case of Webb v. Outtrim,® which was brought to the 
Privy Council on appeal from the Supreme Court of Victoria, 
which followed the decision in Deakin v Webb? the Privy 
Council rejected as applicable to the Commonwealth Con- 
stitution the principle of implied prohibition. In the 
judgement, which was delivered by Lord Halsbury, the Privy 
Council referred to the Constitution Act of 1855 as giving 
power to the Crown with Parliament to make laws in and 
' The Supreme Court of Tasmania in The King v. Bawden (1 Tas. L. R. 
156) applied the doctrine to a state abilities tax, which the Court held to 
be an income tax in substance, though calculated on the basis of multiples 
of the value of the residence. 
* 30. L. R. 807. 
110 L R OBR5.