The Acting Commissioner of Taxation has forwarded the following memoran-dum for advice:

With further reference to the late Commissioner's communication of 3 December last relative to section 9 of the Income Tax Assessment Act and to regulation 30 thereunder regarding furnishing information to other Departments: Since this letter was written a memorandum has been forwarded from the Defence Department enclosing paragraph 52 (2) (a) of the War Precautions Regulations 1915, which reads as follows:

52 (2) (a) The Minister or any competent naval or military authority may, by order, require any corporation or person of any class or description to furnish him, either verbally or in writing, with such information, and to produce to him such documents, books and papers, relative to any matter affecting the public safety or the defence of the Commonwealth, as may be specified in the order, and the Minister or the competent naval or military authority may take copies of or extracts extracts from such documents, books and papers, and may impound and retain such documents, books and papers, for such time as he thinks necessary. I shall be glad to learn whether the provisions of paragraph 52 (2) (a) of the above Regulations override section 9 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1915.

I do not think that regulation 52 (2) (a) of the War Precautions Regulations overrides section 9 of the Income Tax Assessment Act.

As the Income Tax Assessment Act was passed subsequent to the making of that regulation, the legislature must be presumed to have intended that section 9 of the Income Tax Assessment Act was not to be subject to the provisions of War Precautions Regulation 52 (2) (a).

[Vol. 15, p. 74]

1. This opinion is unsigned in the Opinion Book, but it is attributed to Sir Robert Garran.