The Prime Minister has forwarded to me for advice a letter addressed by Mr Richard A. Crouch to the Governor-General, from which the following is an extract: My Lord,

As a member of the last Commonwealth Parliament, may I bring under your notice the provisions of the Imperial Statute, 6 Anne, chapter 7⁽¹⁾, section 6, by which 'in case there should be no Parliament in being at the time of the demise of the Crown, then the last preceding Parliament should immediately convene and sit at Westminster as if the said Parliament had never been dissolved'.

This Act was confirmed by further Imperial legislation, 37 George III, c. 127⁽²⁾, section 3; and by 33 & 34 Victoria, chapter 81⁽³⁾, passed as late as 1870.

By section 49 of the Commonwealth Constitution, the powers and privileges of the Imperial Parliament are granted to the Commonwealth Parliament.

As His late Majesty has, most lamentably, demised, and as the Commonwealth is in the position, unique in the Empire, of having no 'Parliament in being' on his death, perhaps you will take into your consideration whether these statutes do not at once operate, and whether any other Parliament than the preceding Parliament can be legally called together, and whether in such case its legislation would be valid.

Section 6 of the Act of Anne was repealed by 37 George III, c. 127, and replaced by section 3 of the latter Act, which provides that:

In case of the demise of His Majesty, his heirs or successors, subsequent to the dissolution or expiration of a Parliament, and before the day appointed by the writs of summons for assembling a new Parliament, then and in such case the last preceding Parliament shall immediately convene and sit at Westminster and be a Parliament to continue for and during the space of six months and no longer, to all intents and purposes as if the same Parliament had not been dissolved or expired.

That provision clearly relates to the Imperial Parliament alone, and has no application whatever to the legislature of a British possession.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom is ordinarily convened by summons from the King; but the law requires that, in case of the demise of the Crown, the Parliament-or, if there is no Parliament in being, the preceding Parliament-should at once convene, without summons, at Westminster. In other words, the Act of Parliament itself operates as a standing summons to the Parliament to meet at Westminster immediately on the demise of the Crown.

Section 49 of the Constitution does not give the Commonwealth Parliament the functions of the Imperial Parliament, nor confer upon the Commonwealth Parliament the 'power and privilege' of meeting at Westminster.

There is not the slightest warrant in the Constitution for applying the law of the United Kingdom relating to the meeting of Parliament on the demise of the Crown.

[Vol. 7, p. 464]

(1) The Succession to the Crown Act 1707 (Imp.), also cited as 6 Anne c. 41 (Statutes of the Realm).

(2) The Meeting of Parliament Act 1797 (Imp.).

(3) The Meeting of Parliament Act 1870 (Imp.).