The Secretary to the Treasury has forwarded the following memorandum asking for advice:

The following resolution was passed at the Conference of Premiers held in Melbourne in December last:

That the Commonwealth be requested to pay to the States the per capita return to make good the non-payment for those men who have gone to the front; this to date back from the time of making the deduction on the ground that these men still form part of the population.

2. The Honourable the Premier of New South Wales now asks for a communication from the Commonwealth Government in regard to the matter and I have by direction to ask that you will be good enough to furnish an opinion as early as possible as to the legality of the claim.

The Surplus Revenue Act 1910, section 4, provides for the payment by the Commonwealth to the States for a period of ten years from 1 July 1910, of an annual sum amounting to Twenty-five shillings per head of the number of the people of the State.

By section 7 of that Act any reference to the number of the people of a State shall be deemed to be to the number of the people of the State as ascertained according to the laws of the Commonwealth by the Commonwealth Statistician as at the thirty-first day of December in each year.

In ascertaining population the Statistician has regard to the excess of births over deaths or vice versa and arrivals over departures or vice versa. He ascertains the number of persons who are present at the time fixed and cannot inquire as to the probable duration of or reason for the absence of any person from Australia.

Assuming the Statistician has based his calculations on these principles and that payment has been made accordingly, I do not think the States have any legal claim to additional payment.

[Vol. 15, p. 257]