1020 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART v
objections even in Crown Colonies that they are hardly now
in use. It is simpler to disallow and re-enact with changes.
When Acts are not disallowed it used to be the practice of
the Crown to issue an Order in Council in the case of the
responsible-government Colonies leaving the Acts to their
operation ; this is no longer done, all that is done being
bo intimate by dispatch that the King will not be advised to
exercise his power of disallowance with respect to a measure.
It is a moot point whether this is sufficient to debar His
Majesty from exercising the power, should he later on desire
to do so. At any rate, the question can hardly arise, as
the Crown would scarcely propose nowadays to act in this
manner. But of course the form is needless, and the course
may be adopted of leaving Acts alone, this in some cases
indicating that the Crown does not wish to express even
formal approval of the Act in question!
§ 3. Tur SuBjEcTs oF CONTROL
It is possible from the list of subjects for reservation, and
from the returns which have been made to Parliament of
Bills which have for one reason or another failed to receive
the royal assent, to make out a fairly complete list of subjects
in which the Imperial control has been exercised even in
recent years. It is hardly possible to classify them in any
very scientific manner ; they may perhaps for our purposes
be classified into (1) matters affecting the internal affairs
of the Dominion; (2) native affairs ; (3) the immigration of
coloured races; (4) treaty relations and foreign affairs ;
(6) trade and currency ; (6) merchant shipping ; (7) copy-
right ; (8) divorce and status : (9) military and naval defence.
To these the letters patent and instructions add the grant
of land or moneys to the Governor, matters affecting the
prerogative, and questions affecting the interests of British
subjects not resident in the Dominions, as to which a few
words will be sufficient. The subject of honours, though
* Thus the Newfoundland Acts of 1895, cc. 7, 11, and 12; Natal Act
No. 27 of 1895; and Western Australia, No. 54 of 1899, were so treated :
Parl. Pap., H. C. 184, 1906, p. 4.
