1124 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
the section, but that it would seem to him in the light of 
its language that there was at least grave doubt whether or 
not the Legislatures of some of the provinces of Canada must 
not be called upon by the Government to implement the 
provisions of the treaty in case it was ratified. Elsewhere 
also he indicated that the Government of Ontario ought to 
be consulted with regard to the treaty, and that the Govern- 
ment of Ontario would require to pass some of the legislation 
necessary before the treaty could come into effect. 
Sir Wilfrid Laurier did not, in dealing with the question, 
make any clear statement as to his views on the point of the 
position of the Government of Ontario, but he stated that 
Mr. Gibbons, by whom the treaty was negotiated, had instruc- 
tions during the time that the negotiations were being carried 
on to confer with the Government of Ontario, because the 
Canadian Government realized that the Ontario Government 
were concerned, and very properly concerned, in a matter 
of this kind. In 1911, however, an Act was passed which in 
ratifying the treaty with the United States regarding boundary 
waters expressly abrogates all conflicting provincial laws 2 
In the case of the Commonwealth the matter is by no 
means so simple or free from doubt, in view of the somewhat 
independent position of the states. The Constitution of the 
Commonwealth, as adopted, empowers by s. 51 (xxix) the 
Commonwealth Parliament to legislate regarding external 
affairs, but what power is given with regard to treaties by 
that clause is not known, for it has never been decided by 
the High Court or the Privy Council, and the wide inter- 
pretation of external powers which might seem natural is 
rendered somewhat doubtful by the fact that the Common- 
* Of. also the direct intercourse of the Ontario Ministry and Mr. Bryce, 
Ambassador at Washington, on this topic ; Canadian Annual Review, 1908, 
pp. 309, 310. In 1911 in the reciprocity arrangement with America, the 
Canadian Government resolutely declined to agree to the free export of 
pulp from Canada since Ontario and Quebec forbade it, and disclaimed all 
desire to coerce the provinces—even if they could do so, which they did 
not claim to be able to do; cof. Parl. Pap., Cd. 5512, 5516, and House of 
Commons Debates, 1910-11, p. 3389. 
* See Canada House of Commons Debates, 1911, pp. 9337 seq.