CHAP. III] JUDICIAL APPEALS 1379 
the Empire decided that the Privy Council should be consti- 
tuted in a special manner for the hearing of appeal cases, there 
would be no objection to that being done. With regard to 
the proposal of the fusion of the House of Lords and the 
Privy Council, he pointed out that it had never been fully 
discussed in England, and that it would be premature to 
accept the principle. 
As a result of the Conference steps were taken to pass the 
Act of 1908 which, in addition to amending the Act of 1895 
so as to include among the judges eligible for membership 
of the Judicial Committee judges of the High Court of the 
Commonwealth of Australia, of the Transvaal and Orange 
River Colony, and of Newfoundland, made provision for 
Colonial judges sitting as assessors in accordance with the 
suggestion put forward by Sir Joseph Ward and accepted by 
the Lord Chancellor. 
On the other hand, the Government of New Zealand 
moved at the Imperial Conference of 1911 the following 
resolution — 1 
Imperial Court of Appeal. ‘That now it has become 
evident, in consideration of the growth of population, the 
diversity of laws enacted, and the differing public policies 
affecting legal interpretation in His Majesty’s Oversea 
Dominions, that no Imperial Court of Appeal can be satis- 
factory which does not include judicial representatives of 
these Dominions.’ 
The following is the text of the resolution proposed by the 
Government of the Commonwealth of Australia ‘— 
Imperial Appeal Court. ‘That it is desirable that the 
judicial functions in regard to the Dominions now exercised 
by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council should be 
vested in an Imperial Appeal Court which should also be 
the final Court of Appeal for Great Britain and Ireland.’ 
As regards the latter proposal it is doubtful if this 
country is prepared to see British appeals decided by a Court 
on which Colonial members would sit, and unless it is so 
Parl. Pap., Cd. 5513; see below, Part VIII, chap. iii.