decision should not lie with highest tribunal of Empire, beyond suspicion. of local bias or predilection. || (4) Important questions may arise as to operation of Commonwealth Laws on British shipping, or generally as to whether such laws are ultra vires, which the Imperial Parliament can scarcely allow to be concluded by decision of Australian High Court. || (5) Commonwealth legislation on such subjects as fisheries may seriously affect the interests of subjects of other parts of the Empire, and in such matters Parliament could not expect them to submit to be deprived of appeal to an Imperial Court. || (6) Banks and other financial and commercial institutions having large interests in Australia entertain very strong feeling against the limitation, and weighty representations have been made on the subject to Her Majesty's Government. || (7) Her Majesty's Government feel that the actual restriction, and the power claimed to make further restriction equivalent to practical abolition of appeal, would be specially inopportune at the moment when they are considering terms of a Bill for enhancing the dignity and promoting the efficiency of the Judicial Committee by practically amalgamating it with the House of Lords, and providing for adequate permanent representation of the great Colonies in a new Court which it is proposed to create. Should Australian appeals be practically withdrawn, the new Court would be deprived of a large part of its value as providing a new sphere for co-operation between Colonies and Mother Country, and giving effect to some extent to ardent desire for closer relations now happily existing both in Mother Country and Colonies. || Her Majesty's Government feel that for these reasons and others which have been fully explained to delegates they must press for amendment of Clause 74, but it is their earnest desire that such amendment may be carried out in the way most agreeable to Australian sentiment, and so as to avoid if possible the necessity of delay and expense involved in a further referendum. || Several suggestions have been made with this object, but delegates feel that lack of instructions precludes them from discussing the form which any amendment should take, or the method by which effect should be given to it. It is also necessary that provision should be made for explaining that, as intended by the framers of the Constitution, the Colonial Laws Validity Act, 1865, will apply to Laws of a Commonwealth Parliament; there can be no difficulty in arranging suitable terms on this point. || I now earnestly appeal to your Government to co-operate with me in securing the unopposed passage of a Bill which, while accepting the Constitution proposed by the Colonies practically in its entirety, will also take account of the considerations urged above; and I trust that

your Ministers may see fit to enlarge the instructions to their delegate, and to give him authority to arrange with Her Majesty's Government the speediest and most satisfactory method by which these objects can be ensured.

Nr. 13140. GROSSBRITANNIEN. — Der Kolonialminister an den Generalagenten für Neu-Seeland. Antwort auf

Nr. 13136.

Downing Street, April 10, 1900.

Sir, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to inform you that he has received a letter from Western Australia, suggesting that, if it is impracticable to amend the draft Commonwealth Bill to meet the views of Western Australia by the substitution of five years' fiscal freedom for the sliding scale of Customs duties at present provided, it would be desirable to amend Section 121 of the Bill in order to allow the Federal Parliament, if it so pleases, to admit Western Australia to the Commonwealth hereafter on the terms desired by the Colony it being presumed by the writer that the Parliament will, under Section 121 as it now stands, be able to admit new States to the Commonwealth only within the conditions of the Constitution, one of which conditions is free trade between the States. || Mr. Chamberlain would be glad to learn whether the Australian delegates hold this view as to the restricted effect of Section 121. I am, &c.,

H. Bertram Cox.

Nr. 13141. VICTORIA. - Der Gouverneur an den britischen Kolonialminister. Erwiderung der australischen Minister auf Chamberlains Vorstellungen in

Nr. 13139.

Received 6.45 p.m., April 22, 1900.

Telegram. || In accordance with request made by Premiers in conference, Melbourne, transmit following telegram:- || The Premiers of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania, in conference assembled, having given full consideration to the despatches, from the Secretary of State for the Colonies respecting suggested amendments in the Commonwealth Bill, reply:- (1.) While they fully recognise the feeling of the Imperial Government that vigilance on their part is essential in the interests of all parts of the Empire, and also the importance of securing the inclusion of Western Australia in the Federation

from the first, they cannot forget that by the enabling Acts and in pursuance of them (a) the framing of the Federal Constitution was expressly entrusted to the Convention of Representatives, specially elected by the people for the purpose, in all the Colonies, except Queensland and Western Australia, and that the final acceptance or rejection of the Constitution when framed was also remitted to the people; (b) the question as to appeals was, inter alia, considered by the Convention in Adelaide, and no appeal to the Privy Council was allowed. During the visit of the Premiers to England at the Jubilee, the matter was referred to by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who urged reconsideration. It was accordingly reconsidered at the meeting of the Convention in Melbourne, and resolved in the opposite direction to the decision in Adelaide. Later, the matter was again discussed, and the compromise now in the Bill agreed to. It was yet again debated in the Premier's Conference prior to the last referendum, and no alteration was made in the form of the Bill. The vote was then taken and the Bill was adopted by a large majority of the electors; (c) the Commonwealth Bill belongs therefore in a very special sense to the people of Australia, whose only mandate to Governments and Parliaments is to seek its enactment by the Imperial Parliament in the form in which it was adopted by the people. || (2.) The Premiers believe that the Appeal Clause, as framed, could not work injuriously to any part of the Empire, although the proposed new Court of Appeal for the Empire would doubtless present attractions to the people of Australia. || (3.) The only alternatives suggested in the despatches are: (1) Amendment of the Bill and (2) postponement of its consideration. Of these two the Premiers do not hesitate to say that the latter course would be much more objectionable to Australians generally even than the former. || (4.) Without disputing the constitutional power of the Imperial Parliament to amend the Bill on its own responsibility, the Premiers respectfully urge that the voice of the Australian people given on the Bill as it stands should receive that favourable consideration which such a weighty referendum demands. The Premiers do not consider themselves as having authority to accept any amendments. They hope that the Colony of Western Australia, whose respresentatives assisted to frame the Bill and in the Convention almost unanimously agreed to Clause 95, may be urged to accept it as it stands. They think that the Bill already sufficiently provides for the admission of New Zealand.

Nr. 13142. AUSTRALIEN. — Die Delegierten, außer dem für Queensland, an den englischen Kolonialminister.

Sie lehnen die verlangten Änderungen ab.

After the Conference held at the Colonial Office on the 5th April, 1900, the Right Honourable the Secretary of State invited the Premiers of the Australian Colonies which have forwarded the Commonwealth Bill to „co-operate" with him in securing an „amendnient of clause 74 . . . . in the way most agreeable to Australian sentiment", trusting that they would see fit to enlarge the instructions to their Delegates", and give them „authority to arrange with Her Majesty's Government the speediest and most satisfactory method" of doing so. The one remaining amendment of the measure which Her Majesty's Government have suggested has been fully considered by the Premiers in conference. As they have been unable to accept it, or to agree to withdraw, enlarge, or modify the instructions under which the Delegates are acting, it continues to be the common duty of the Delegates, each of whom is appointed to represent all of the federating Colonies, to press for the speedy passage of the Bill as prepared. by the instructions, and indorsed by the votes, of the Australian people. In firmly preferring this request with all possible respect, the subscribing Delegates feel it to be desirable to offer some comment upon the Memorandum of the Secretary of State of the 29th March, 1900, not from any desire to unduly prolong controversy, but simply to prevent possible misunderstanding. || It is unfortunately a necessity that their remarks should be mainly confined to the legal issues raised by the Crown Law Officers, and chiefly upon legal lines. But at the outset the Delegates desire to once more affirm their conviction that the real question involved is only incidentally one of a legal character. So far as they discuss matters of interpretation or construction of the Commonwealth Bill, it is merely for the purpose of showing that they may be safely set aside even from the standpoint of the constitutional lawyer. They may be, and indeed are, worthy of the best examination in detail, and this the Delegates have endeavoured to give them, satisfied as they are that at best they affect only what in the present case may be termed side issues. It is hoped that they will be read in this light and not supposed to be fundamental because they are here again examined at some length. The substantial issue which it has been the first duty of the Delegates to submit, and which they again, with all deference, press upon the best attention of Her Majesty's Ministers, is that the Bill as prepared is the Australian Constitution in a double sense,

since it is not only Australian by origin, but by the deliberate indorsement of Parliaments and peoples. Any alteration of it not both absolutely essential and incapable of achievement by any other means and at any other time is to be deprecated as destroying the character of the measure so prepared, and re-opening numerous issues at present happily and conclusively settled. | The very preamble of the Commonwealth Bill, in language adopted after full debate as the foundation of the whole structure, sets out that the people of the Colonies which have adopted the Constitution, „humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established". An alteration such as is proposed would, therefore, at once vitiate the agreement to unite, and render this solemn declaration a violation of the facts. It is to be gravely apprehended that if clause 74 be amended the persistent opponents of Federation and of this Bill would be encouraged to renew their agitation. A fresh Referendum, whatever its result, must involve further expense, delay, and vexation. If a Referendum were not granted it would be corectly asserted that the Bill no longer contained the contract which the people had accepted. In either case, the initiation of the Commonwealth would be embittered, and its earlist problems confused by the introduction of issues fruitful of strife. The Delegates are still confident that Her Majesty's Government will not find it incumbent upon them to adopt a course involving such consequences. || The anxiety of Her Majesty's Government that the Bill should be speedily passed is acknowledged with gratification. That it is their bounden duty to protect other interests besides those of Australia, if any such are injured, is as readily recognized. It is believed that the Commonwealth Bill has been framed with every due regard to this consideration, and that the Representatives who prepared it have left nothing undone to secure in its provisions just protection to the interests of the Mother-country and of the rest of the Empire, as well as of Australia. || As it is no longer in contemplation to alter the measure except as to clause 74, the effect of which would be nullified by amending Nos. 2 and 5 of the covering clauses", the Delegates will confine their remarks as closely as possible to that part of the Bill. They are told that their previous Memorandum „abstains from discussing any of the suggested alterations on their merits". They venture respectfully to entertain a different opinion, and in support of it, they point to the fact that the elaborate Memorandum of Her Majesty's Government is of a nature which would scarcely have been thought ne