The Acting Prime Minister:

The Comptroller-General of Customs has received from the Department of Agriculture⁽¹⁾ a letter (dated 2 October 1902) in the following terms:

I have the honour to inform you that it has pleased His Excellency the Governor in Council to prohibit the introduction into Victoria, from New South Wales and South Australia, of poultry, and it is the wish of the Honourable the Minister of Agriculture that you be so good as to direct your officers accordingly.

The Minister for Trade and Customs has forwarded the letter to the Acting Prime Minister with the following minute (dated 4 October 1902):

Forwarded to the Hon. the Acting Prime Minister. I take it that a notice of this description is altogether insufficient to justify me in directing any interference with interstate free trade.

The Acting Prime Minister asks to be advised on the matter.

I agree with Mr Kingston⁽²⁾ that the notice is insufficient to justify him in directing any interference with interstate free trade. It does not disclose the legislative authority (if any) under which the Governor in Council has issued the order; nor does it allege the purpose of the prohibition, nor any facts to justify it.

In the exercise of its police power, a State may pass laws reasonably necessary to prevent the introduction of diseased animals etc., even though interstate trade may be indirectly affected; but it does not follow that any State law passed ostensibly for that purpose is valid. See Quick & Garran, pp. 847-851, and American cases there cited.

If a State asks for the assistance of the Commonwealth in carrying out such a restriction as this, it should give information as would enable the Commonwealth Government to determine its duties and responsibilities.

[Vol. 2, p. 327]

(1) Of Victoria.

(2) Charles Cameron Kingston, Minister for Trade and Customs.