I am in receipt of your minute of the 1st June, 1925, requesting advice whether the powers vested in Governor-General by Commonwealth Acts are retained by him when those Acts are applied, by Ordinances, to the Territory of New Guinea.

I assume that the nature of the application referred to is such as is provided for in the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance.

When an Act of the Commonwealth is so applied by Ordinance to the Territory it does not follow that the powers conferred by the Act upon specified officers are exercisable by them in the Territory under the Act applied.

The case of the Governor-General is different to that of other officers seeing that his is the authority whereby the Act is applied and that he has jurisdiction over the Territory in common with the rest of the Commonwealth and its Dependencies.

There is no authority in New Guinea analogous to the Governor-General. I think therefore that the Governor-General retains in respect of the Territory his statutory powers under any Act of the Commonwealth applied thereto in the manner followed in section 11 of the Laws Repeal and Adopting Ordinance, 1921.

[Vol. 22, p. 432]