928 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV
a general election before them could not give proper atten-
tion to business without disastrous results.
A law was therefore passed by the necessary majorities in
both Houses under which the period of a senator’s office
was to commence on July 1. The law was submitted to
the electors with the result that there was a large majority
in each state in its favour. The figures were for the whole
Commonwealth, 774,011 for, 162,470 against ; but no fewer
than 112,155 ballot papers were informal. The total per-
centage of voters to the electors enrolled was 50-17, viz.
56-35 male, 43-24 female.
In April 1910! contemporaneously with the general elec-
tion, two very important referenda took place. The first
was to alter the Constitution so as to enable the Common-
wealth to take over all the debts of the Constitution as
existing at the time when they were taken over, and not
merely the debts as they existed at the time of the establish-
ment of the Commonwealth, Jan. 1, 1901. The arguments in
favour of the change were obviously considerable ; if it were
advisable that the Commonwealth should take over the debts
there was no sound reason for restricting that power to the
case of the debts actually existing in 1901, and as a matter of
fact the referendum was successful in all the states except
New South Wales, which being apparently enamoured of its
financial autonomy and its power of raising loans at low
rates, objected to giving further power to the Commonwealth.
The totals for in the Commonwealth were 715,053 to 586,271,
but in New South Wales the numbers were 159,275 to
318,412. There were no fewer than 96,209 informal ballot
papers. The percentage of voters who voted in favour of
the law to the total number of electors enrolled was 31-66
per cent. ; the percentage of voters who voted not in favour
was 25-96 per cent.
The other proposal was a readjustment of the Common-
wealth and the state finances. It was proposed by agreement
between the states and the Commonwealth Government
ander Mr. Deakin that payment of 25s. per head should be
1 See Parl. Pap., 1910, No. 1.
