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COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

One of the most interesting political movements of the nineteenth century was the formation of federal states from the separate British colonies of North America and Australia. In each case the terms of federation were agreed upon by the colonies and were enacted into law by the British Parliament.

A union of the British colonies of Australasia was under dis cussion for many years. A bill introduced into the British Parliament in 1849 provided for the establishment of a general executive and legislative authority for all of the Australian colonies, and in 1851 a governor-general was appointed over all the Australian possessions of Great Britain.

Between 1863 and 1883 numerous intercolonial conferences were held for the purpose of regulating matters common to the several colonies. A plan of federation was submitted to the conference of 1881, and in 1883 plans were agreed to for a Federal Australasian Council, which was created by a British act of 1885. Membership in this council was voluntary, and but four of the colonies were constant members. The council had little power but served a useful purpose as a step toward a closer union.

In 1887 the question of military defense started anew the discussion of federation, and in February, 1890, a conference of seven colonies met at Melbourne to consider the advisability of union. This conference recommended that a national Australasian convention should be called to report a plan for a federal constitution. Such a convention met at Sydney in the spring of 1891 and adopted a "Draft of a Bill to Constitute the Commonwealth of Australia." Little further was done until 1895 when a conference of the premiers of the several colonies proposed a convention for the purpose of framing a constitution. This plan was adopted, and the convention held three sessions from March, 1897, to March, 1898; this convention proposed a draft of a constitution which was adopted by three colonies in 1898. At a conference of premiers in 1899 several amendments were agreed upon, and in the same year five colonies adopted the revised con

stitution. Several other changes were made in consultation with the British government; the amended constitution passed the British Parliament and received the royal assent on July 9, 1900. Western Australia did not join the other colonies until after the passage of the "Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act," and New Zealand still remains aloof from the federation.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Official Report of the National Australasian Convention Debates. Adelaide, March 22 to May 5, 1897. (Adelaide, 1897.)

Official Record of the Debates of the Australasian Federal Convention. Second Session. Sydney, 2d to 24th September, 1897. (Sydney, 1897.) Official Record of the Debates of the Australasian Federal Convention. Third Session. Melbourne, 20th January to 17th March, 1898. (Melbourne [1898]. 2 vols.)

BRYCE, JAMES. Studies in History and Jurisprudence.

(London, 1901.)

One of the studies is devoted to a brief account of Australian federation; this and five other constitutional studies were issued in separate form in 1901.

CLARK, A. INGLIS. Studies in Australian Constitutional Law. (2d ed., Melbourne, 1905.) A legal treatise which discusses the constitution with especial reference to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court.

JENKS, EDWARD. A History of the Australasian Colonies. (Cambridge, 1896.) An excellent work, which devotes especial attention to the constitutional development.

JENKS, EDWARD. Government of Victoria. (London, 1891.) A careful study of the government of one of the most important Australian colonies.

MOORE, W. HARRISON. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia. (London, 1902.) An important commentary on the text of the Australian constitution.

QUICK, JOHN AND GARRAN, R. R. The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth. (Sydney, 1901.) An indispensable book for the study of the Australian constitution. It contains a full history of the federal movement, and the annotations trace the development of each clause of the constitution.

TODD, ALPHEUS. Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies. (2d ed., London, 1894.) Gives a good account of the development of responsible government in the separate Australian colonies.

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

CONSTITUTION ACT

(July 9, 1900)

WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established: and Whereas it is expedient to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. This Act may be cited as the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act.

2. The provisions of this Act referring to the Queen shall extend to Her Majesty's Heirs and Successors in the Sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day therein appointed, not being later than one year after the passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. But the Queen may, at any time after the Proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth.

4. The Commonwealth shall be established, and the Constitution of the Commonwealth shall take effect, on and after

the day so appointed. But the Parliaments of the several Colonies may at any time after the passing of this Act make any such laws, to come into operation on the day so appointed, as they might have made if the Constitution had taken effect at the passing of this Act.

5. This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be binding on the Courts, Judges, and people of every State, and of every part of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any State; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in force on all British ships, the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and whose port of destination are in the Commonwealth.

6. "The Commonwealth" shall mean the Commonwealth of Australia as established under this Act.

"The States" shall mean such of the Colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the Northern Territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such Colonies or Territories as may be admitted into or established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called a "State."

"Original States" shall mean such States as are parts of the Commonwealth at its establishment.

7. The Federal Council of Australasia Act, 1885, is hereby repealed; but so as not to affect any laws passed by the Federal Council of Australasia and in force at the establishment of the Commonwealth.

Any such law may be repealed as to any State by the Parliament of the Commonwealth, or as to any colony not being a State by the Parliament thereof.

8. After the passing of this Act the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895, shall not apply to any colony which becomes a State of the Commonwealth; but the Commonwealth shall be

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