CHAP. II] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 833
but the Land and Income Tax Act of New South Wales, con-
sidered apart from authority and on the merits of the case,
could not be regarded as an infringement of the rule of
non-interference with Commonwealth instrumentalities laid
down in the latter case.
Higgins J.* held that the only diminution of the prerogative
right of the King in Council to entertain appeals from all
Courts in the Colonies and Dependencies was that in cases
Involving such questions as were referred to in s. 74, when
the High Court had given a decision there was to be no
appeal from the High Court except by leave of the High
Court, and there was nothing in the Constitution to make the
High Court the final authority on any kind of law. The Act
should not be extended by implication in the direction of
infringement of the prerogative rights of the Crown. The
King in Council being therefore still the appellate court from
the High Court, and the High Court a court from which
appeals could be brought to the King in Council, it was the
duty of the High Court to accept the decision of the King in
Council as the final statement of the law. The Land and
Income Tax Act of New South Wales was not an interference
with a Commonwealth instrumentality.
It is difficult to agree with the view taken by the majority
of the High Court, either with regard to the question of
the position of the High Court as opposed to the Privy
Council, or as to the merits of the doctrine of implied pro-
hibition. The High Court admitted in effect that, as
regards the relations of the provinces of Canada and the
Federal Government, the power of disallowance by the
Governor-General is a matter of importance, and must
be taken into consideration. The power of disallowance
in the Commonwealth, though vested in the Crown and
hot in the Governor-General, cannot be ignored, and the
existence of that power and, moreover, of the paramount
power of the Imperial Parliament to legislate to adjust
matters between the Commonwealth and the states, and
it may be added the simple mode of altering the Constitution,
4 C. L. R. 1087, at p. 1161.
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