The Minister for Home Affairs has referred the following questions, stated by the Commonwealth Statistician, to me for opinion:

1. Whether the Commonwealth Statistician is entitled under the provisions of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, or otherwise, to be furnished with a copy of the report of the proceedings of the Interstate Railways Commissioners' Conference held in Melbourne in May last, which report the Commissioners regard as confidential.
2. Whether the Commonwealth Statistician has authority under the provisions of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, or of the several States' Railway Acts, or otherwise, to require the Railway Commissioners of all or any of the States, to furnish him with statistics of'passenger-miles' and 'ton-miles'.

As regards question (1), I am of opinion that the Commonwealth Statistician has no power under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 to require the Railway Commissioners of a State to furnish him with a copy of a report which the Commissioners regard as confidential. The Act contains no provision authorising the Statistician to require the production of documents and on this ground alone I am of opinion that question (1) should be answered in the negative.

As regards question (2), I am of opinion that the Commonwealth Statistician has no general power under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 to require the Railway Commissioners of a State to supply him with statistics of 'passenger-miles' and 'ton-miles'. If an arrangement relating to the supply of such information has been entered into under section 6 of the Act with any State, he would have as regards the Railway Commissioners of that State such authority (if any) to ask for the information as the arrangement conferred upon him, but in the absence of any provision in such an arrangement the Statistician has, in my opinion, no power to demand from a State authority information in the latter's possession in his official capacity. Apart from the Census and Statistics Act 1905 I know of no authority under which the Commonwealth Statistician is entitled to demand information from any person or authority.

[Vol. 7, p. 285]