856 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
of Great Britain that it had no power to take the steps, the 
omission to take which was charged against it by the United 
States Government. Moreover, the Arbitration Court had 
a different function from ordinary Courts of law. It was 
to prescribe rules of conduct between master and men, and 
not to declare existing laws. Tt was admitted by all that the 
Arbitration Court could override existing agreements and 
existing state arbitration awards ag distinct from Wages 
Board determinations, and he could not see any ground on 
which the distinction was drawn. The key of the situation 
lay in the fact that no state law applied or could apply to 
two-state disputes, and therefore the Arbitration Court 
could not be bound by state laws. The power of the Court 
was one to settle disputes, and only incidentally did it fix 
labour conditions, but when it did so fix them it prevailed 
over all state laws. He applied to the case the propositions 
laid down by the Chief Justice in D’Emden v. Pedder! which 
he quoted, and he insisted that the doctrine which had been 
enforced in that case, where the obstruction of federal action 
was only trifling and theoretical, might much more confi- 
dently be invoked where the Court of Arbitration could not 
effectively settle a dispute without being free to prescribe 
a uniform system for employers and employees in states 
which had differing labour laws. 
This view he supported by American cases and also by 
Canadian cases, including the case of Compagnie hydraulique 
de St. Francois v. Continental Heat and Light Company? where 
it was laid down by the judicial committee that when a 
given point of legislation was within the competence both of 
the Parliament of Canada and of the Provincial Legislatures, 
and both have legislated, the enactment of the Dominion 
Parliament must prevail over that of the province, 
On the other hand, he considered that the decision of the 
Court was in substance correct, and that there was no incon- 
sistency between the proposed award and the state board 
awards and determinations. With regard to the Factories 
and Shops Act of Victoria, No. 2241, he pointed out that 
'1C LR. 91, at pp. 108, 109, * [19097 A, C. 194.