Legal Opinions

The Prime Minister asks to be advised whether, in reckoning the population of the State of Queensland, and of the Commonwealth, for the purposes of section 24 of the Constitution, aboriginal natives of India, China, or the South Sea Islands, resident in Queensland, should be excluded from the reckoning under the provisions of section 25 of the Constitution.

Submitted as to whether the proposed Regulations, purporting to empower the Postmaster-General to supply lines and apparatus for burglar alarms, are intra vires the Constitution and the Post and Telegraph Act 1901.

I understand that the burglar alarms proposed are in the nature of an electrical attachment to doors, windows, safes, etc., which by means of a conducting wire will give some indication at a distance-say at a police station-if the door, window, safe, etc. is being opened or tampered with.

1. The Attorney-General presents his duty, and has the honour to submit the following observations upon the matters to which His Excellency directs the Attorney-General's attention, by memorandum of 10 December in relation to the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill.⁽¹⁾

The Secretary, Department of Defence asks for advice on the question raised in the following extracts from a letter, Acting Commandant Q. to D.Q.M.G.:

The Secretary, Department of Home Affairs, states that the practice in his Department has been to pay to the State of New South Wales the stamp duty and registration fee in the matters of transfers of land, and that the Treasury has informed him that, under the decision of the High Court in D'Emden v. Pedder⁽¹⁾, this amount is not payable by the Commonwealth.

The Department of Trade and Customs has asked the Department of External Affairs for information as to what is expected of this Government in connection with the sale of vessels or the shipment of contraband to Russia or Japan.

The Secretary, Department of External Affairs, in submitting the matter to the Prime Minister, cites a passage from Holland's International Law, p. 124, as denning the rule as to contraband, and proceeds:

HISTORY OF PROVISIONS

The Constitution of the United States provides (Article 1, section 8, sub-section 17) that:

The Congress shall have power to . . . exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States. . .

The Commonwealth Bill of 1891 contained the following provisions:

Chapter I, section 53:

In view of the possibility of discussion on the subject at the approaching conference it is open to enquiry where the line is to be drawn between Commonwealth and State.

The practice in Western Australia of charging discriminating railway rates in favour of her own productions and against the productions of the other States was conversationally discussed at last week's Cabinet and I expressed the opinion that the legality of this practice might if necessary be tested by proper proceedings in the High Court although no Inter-State Commission was established.

The Prime Minister-There; can be no doubt of the power of the Commonwealth Parliament to establish a Department of Agriculture. The provisions of section 51, sub-section (iii) with respect to bounties on the exports of goods necessarily imply the power of establishing such a department.

The power may also be regarded as incidental to the powers in respect to trade and commerce, quarantine, and for the matter of that, also statistics, patents for inventions etc.