998 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART TV 
issued under which the administration is carried on, and 
the High Commissioner legislates bv proclamation. 
§ 10. THE AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION 
As is natural in the case of a Constitution which is frankly 
not in any real sense federal, the Act does not restrict in any 
substantial manner the Parliament’s power to alter the 
provisions of the Constitution. Tt is especially laid down in 
S. 152 that Parliament may by law repeal or alter any of 
the provisions of the Act, provided that no provision thereof 
for the operation of which a definite period of time is fixed 
shall be repealed or altered before the expiration of such 
period, and also provided that no repeal or alteration of the 
provisions of the section itself or of ss. 33 and 34 relative to 
the numbers of the members of the Legislative Assembly, 
prior to the expiration of ten years or until the total number 
of members of the Assembly has reached 150, whichever 
occurs later, or of the provisions of s. 35 relative to the 
qualifications of electors to the House of Assembly, or of 
8. 137 as to the use of languages, shall be valid, unless the Bill 
containing the alterations is passed at a joint sitting of the 
Houses, and at its third reading by not less than two-thirds 
of the total number of members of both Houses. The 
section is well worded, as it obviates the possible evasion of 
its spirit by the alteration of the section itself. For example, 
the Queensland Constitution Act of 1867 intended to provide 
a safeguard against the alteration of the composition of the 
Legislative Council by providing that any Act relative to it 
required to be passed by a two-thirds majority, but it omitted 
to provide that the clause itself should only be altered by a 
two-thirds majority, so that in 1908 the Government had no 
difficulty in effecting their purpose by repealing by ordinary 
majorities the offending clause! and so dealing with the matter 
by ordinary majorities. On the other hand. the nrovisions 
" Act No. 2 of 1908. The Act was protested against on this ground in the 
Legislative Council. But exactly similar circumstances occurred in 1857 
in New South Wales. See Queensland Parliamentary Debates, c. 165 seq.