CHAP. 11] LIMITATION OF LEGISLATION 401
Federal Council. Tt was held by the Court, on the other
hand, that the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation had no
jurisdiction in the case. The section gave jurisdiction only over
vessels whose first port of clearance and whose port of destina-
tion were in the Commonwealth. The port of destination
meant the end of the voyage, and the Act applied only to cases
where the beginning and end of the voyage were both in the
Commonwealth. In the case in question the most favourable
view was to assume that their first port of clearance was an
Australian port, and that was extremely doubtful, but the
port of destination could not be said to be in the Common-
wealth, O’Connor J. said the words of s. 5 must be taken
to describe a round voyage beginning and ending within the
Commonwealth. It was no doubt intended to cover the ship-
ping trade carried on by ships owned and registered in
Australia, and manned and officered by Australian citizens,
which for many years had extended to New Zealand
and the islands of the Pacific and Indian ports. It was
intended by Parliament to place vessels engaged on round
voyages in the same position as regards Australian laws as
a British ship held with regard to British laws, namely, that
while on a voyage coming within the meaning of the section
the Australian ships should be, for the purposes of Common-
wealth laws, a floating portion of Commonwealth territory.
That being the meaning of the section, it appeared to
him that when once it was established that the voyage was
of that description, it was immaterial to what part of the
world it might extend, so that if it were established that the
voyage of the respondent’s ships was a round voyage, begin-
ning at an Australian port, calling at Calcutta or any other
foreign port, and ending in an Australian port, the ships
during the whole of the voyage would be under the Common-
wealth laws and under the jurisdiction of Commonwealth
Courts. In the case in question it appeared rather that
the commencement and the end of the voyage were in
Calcutta 1
* Cf. Quick and Garran, Constitution of Commonwealth, p. 361; Keith,
Journ. Soc. Comp. Leg., x. 123-35.
1979
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d
