SHAP. I] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 845 
O’Connor J.1 thought that the power conferred by s. 51 (xx) 
of the Constitution was limited to the making of laws with 
respect to the recognition of corporations as legal entities 
within the Commonwealth, and did not include a power to 
make laws for regulating and controlling the business of 
corporations when once they had been so recognized, and 
were exercising their corporate functions by carrying on 
business in the Commonwealth. 
Higgins J.2 held that the power conferred by s. 51 (xx) of 
the Constitution on the Commonwealth Parliament was 
power to legislate with respect to the classes of corporations 
hamed, as corporations—that is, to regulate the status and 
capacity of such corporations and the conditions on which 
they might be permitted to carry on business ; but did not 
include a power to regulate the contracts into which corpora- 
tions might enter within the scope of their permitted powers. 
Ss. 5 and 8 of the Australian Industries Preservation Aet, 
1906, were not legislation with respect to such corporations, 
but legislation with respect to trade and commerce. 
On the other hand, Isaacs J.2 held that the Commonwealth 
Parliament had power, not to regulate the powers and 
capacities of corporations, but to control the conduct of 
corpordtions in relation to outside persons, and he urged 
strongly that ss. 5 and 8 of the Act were a valid exercise of 
such power. He was also decidedly of opinion that this 
must be the sense of the power given in the Commonwealth 
Act, which would otherwise be of little value or importance. 
The result of the case was the introduction by the Attorney- 
General on September 29, 1910, and the passing by the 
Parliament for submission to a referendum in April 1911 of 
2 Bill to alter the Constitution as follows — 4 
3. 8. 51 of the Constitution is altered by omitting the 
words ‘Foreign corporations, and trading or financial cor- 
‘8 C. L. R. 330, at pp. 367 seq. * Ibid., at pp. 408 seq. 
* 8 C. L. R. 330, at pp. 381 seq. 
! See Parliamentary Debates, 1910, passim. The debates of both Houses 
Were separately issued as a pamphlet. For the terms of the proposed 
aw, see Gazefte, March 16, 1911.