The Minister for Trade and Customs:

Section 727 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 provides that the Governor of a British possession may appoint and remove surveyors of ships within the limits of the possession for any purposes of that Act to be carried into effect in that possession.

The question has arisen whether surveyors should now be appointed by the Governor-General, or by a State Governor.

The Minister for Trade and Customs forwards the papers-

For the advice of the Hon. the Attorney-General, as there seems room for doubt whether the State should not act until Federal legislation re navigation and shipping.

The Imperial Interpretation Act 1889 provides (section 18) that in every Act thereafter passed, unless the contrary intention appears:

The expression 'British possession' shall mean any part of Her Majesty's dominions exclusive of the United Kingdom, and where parts of such dominions are under both a central and a local legislature, all parts under the central legislature shall, for the purposes of this definition, be deemed to be one British possession.

The Commonwealth of Australia is now a British possession under this Act, and in my opinion these appointments may now be made by the Governor-General- notwithstanding the decision of Holroyd J., in Gerhard's Case (No. 3) 27 V.L.R. 655, at pp. 670-4, that a requisition for extradition is not properly made to the Governor-General.

But it does not follow that the States are not also 'British possessions' with respect to matters in which they still have authority (either exclusively or pending Federal legislation). At present, until the administration of shipping is taken over by the Commonwealth, I am of opinion that the State Governors are not deprived of their previous power to act under the sections mentioned. See judgment of A'Beckett J. in re Gerhard 21 V.L.R. 244.

[Vol. 3, p. 478]