cuap. 11] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 929
made to each of the states for ever in place of the arrange-
ment, by which, under s. 87 of the Constitution, three-fourths
of the net customs and excise revenue were paid over to the
states. It was thought that this arrangement would relieve
the Commonwealth of the burden of having to raise £4 for
every £1 which it wished to spend, and that, on the other
hand, the states would know better what sums they would
receive from the Commonwealth in each year, while the
automatic increase of population would lead to an automatic
increase of the sums payable. At the referendum this
proposal was defeated through the exertions of the Labour
party in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, and
South Australia; in the latter case by a very small
majority.
The total vote in favour of the law was 645,514 against
670,838, and 82,437 papers were informal. The voting in
the states was as follows :(—
New South Wales
Victoria . . .
Queensland . .
South Australia
Western Australia
Tasmania .
for, 227,650 ; against, 253,107
200,165 ; - 242,119
87,130 ; 72,516
49,352 ; 51,250
49,050 ; 30,392
32.167 21.454
The percentage of voters for to the total number of electors
enrolled was 28-58 ; of those against, 29-70.
In this case the objection of the Labour party was not to
the actual terms but to the principle of making the arrange-
ment part of the Constitution, and therefore only open to
alteration by a formal alteration of the Constitution. The
Sydney Bulletin, which represents the Labour party in one
of its aspects, pointed out that the acceptance of the pro-
posal was most undesirable inasmuch as it would perma-
nently enable the three small states, Queensland, Western
Australia, and Tasmania to prevent any alteration of the
terms, though such alteration was deemed essential by over-
whelming majorities in the large states. There can be little
doubt that this argument weighed heavily against the
acceptance as it stood of the alteration of the Constitution.
12792 Bb
