ouap. 11] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 827
for Victoria in all cases, and to ss. 106 and 107 of the Common-
wealth of Australia Constitution Act, which provided that the
constitution of each state should continue until altered in
accordance with the law of the Constitution in each case,
and that the powers of the Parliament of each Colony should
continue as at the establishment of the Commonwealth. The
power of taxation by the Parliament was therefore apparently
maintained, but it was argued that, inasmuch as the impo-
sition of an income-tax might interfere with the free exercise
of the legislative or executive power of the Commonwealth,
such interference must be impliedly forbidden by the Con-
stitution of the Commonwealth, although no such express
prohibition could be found therein. Such a prohibition was
based upon the judgement of Marshall C.J. in McCulloch
v. State of Maryland! and no doubt in dealing with the
same subject-matter the judgement of that most learned
and logical lawyer might be accepted as conclusive, but the
Court was not bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court
of the United States, though those decisions might be
regarded as a most welcome aid and assistance in any
analogous case. But in this case the analogy failed in the
very matter which was under debate. No state of the
Australian Commonwealth had the power of independent
legislation possessed by the states of the American Union.
Every Act of the Victorian Council and Assembly required
the assent of the Crown, but when it was assented to it became
an Act of Parliament as much as any Imperial Act, though
the elements by which it was authorized were different. If
indeed it were repugnant to the provisions of any Act of
Parliament extending to the Colony it might be inoperative to
the extent of its repugnance (see The Colonial Laws Validity
Act, 1865), but with this exception 2 no authority existed by
which its validity could be questioned or impeached. The
American Union, on the other hand, had erected a tribunal
which possessed jurisdiction to annul a statute upon the
' 4 Wheat. 316.
* This ignores the question of the territorial limitation of Colonial
jurisdiction, but in the context no reference to that was necessary.
