The Comptroller-General of Customs has forwarded me the following memorandum for advice:

The suggestion has been put forward in the Senate by Senator Keating, that under section 286 of the Navigation Act permits be granted to the Peninsular & Oriental S.N. Company and the Orient Company's Lines of steamers to carry passengers between mainland ports and Hobart during the months of February, March and April in each year, and that if the Navigation Act does not at present give power to do this, it be amended in that direction.

2. Section 286 of the Navigation Act, dealing with the issue of permits, empowers the Minister to grant permits to unlicensed British ships only when, among other conditions, it can be shown to his satisfaction-
   
   1. that no licensed ship is available for the service; or
   2. that the service as carried out by a licensed ship or ships is inadequate to the needs of the port or ports concerned.
3. In response to previous requests for permits under this section, the Minister replied that the service was maintained by licensed ships and that, in his opinion, such service was adequate to the needs of the port of Hobart. The conditions in this regard have not altered.
4. As regards the further suggestion as to the amendment of the Act, advice is desired as to whether a provision that the Minister might grant permits to British mail boats to carry passengers between ports on the mainland and Hobart could validly be inserted in the Navigation Act, or whether such would amount to a contravention of section 99 of the Constitution Act, prohibiting the granting by any law or regulation of preference to any State or part of a State.

The amendment suggested would, for no reason apparent on the face of the Act, give Hobart an advantage not possessed by any other port in any State-i.e. the advantage of being a 'hub' of interstate passenger traffic on unlicensed vessels.
The case differs from the case of Darwin, advised on by the Attorney-General on 2 June 1914⁽¹⁾, and by me on 29 December 1919⁽²⁾, as Darwin is not a port in a State.

I think that the suggested amendment would in all probability be in contravention of section 99 of the Constitution.

[Vol. 19, p. Ill]

(1) Opinion No. 536.

(2) Opinion Np. 946.