Local Option Interfered with. So that increased Federal power over trade and commerce would be much wider than appears upon the face of the amendment. It would not only be confined to local trade and commerce arrangements, but the field of legislative activity would be extremely wide and important. It would bring the Federal authority into conflict with what may be regarded as the local option requirements of the State Legislatures and with municipal corporations. Internal Trade and Traffic of States. There is certainly no public demand whatever for this drastic alteration of the Constitution, which is to give the Commonwealth power and control to regulate all the internal means of exchange, travel and transportation of goods and passengers; all the internal instrumentalities of a State, navigation, roads and rivers, freight, and rates, wharfage and tolls, and so forth. Alleged Neglect of State Parliaments. A final argument resorted to in support of this amendment was that the State Parliaments of Australia had neglected to pass commercial laws for the protection of the public against the sale of shoddy goods, or goods sold under false trade names and trade descriptions. This was a charge which was easily refuted by reference to the Sale of Goods Acts in force in all the States and to the Commonwealth Trade Marks Act. If a person buy goods by description there is in every sale an implied condition that the goods shall correspond to description. A person selling goods on the strength of false description would not only be liable to an action for breach of contract but to a criminal prosecution for obtaining money by means of false pretences. The Federal Trade Marks Act provides very severe penalties against persons selling or attempting to sell goods to which a registered trade mark is falsely applied. Centralization and Unification. If this amendment be at any time carried, the people of Australia might as well march right on to the goal of complete centralization, unification and the obliteration of the States. If this demand were conceded, no important powers would be left to the States, except their control over education, land, and railways. The Federal authority would completely overshadow the States, not merely in Australian matters not merely in inter-state and external matters -but it would dominate the whole political landscape. 51. (II.) Taxation48; but so as not to discriminate49 between States or parts of States: Conspectus of Notes to Section 51 (ii.). Customs Tariff Bill (British Preference) 1906. Customs Tariff (South African Preference) 1906. Customs Tariff Validation Act 1917. Excise Administration Act 1901. Distillation Administration Act 1901-1918. Beer Excise Administration Act 1901-1918. Spirits Administration Act 1906-1918. Excise Tariff Act 1902-1906. Excise Sugar Tariff 1905-10-12. Excise Tariff Agricultural Implements 1906. Excise Tariff (Spirits) 1906. Excise Tariff 1908. Excise Tariff (Starch) 1908. Excise Tariff Validation 1917. Bank Note Tax 1910. Land Tax Act 1910. Land Tax Assessment Act 1910. Estate Duty (Probate) Tax 1914. Income Tax Act 1915-16-17. Entertainment Tax Act 1916. War-time Profit Tax Act 1917. Revenue from taxation. Meaning of taxation. Mode of exercising the taxing power. Indirect effect of taxes. Limitation of the taxing power. Ambit of the taxing power. Land taxation and land settlement policy. Taxing shareholders in land companies. Husband and wife; joint liability. Taxation of Crown leaseholds. Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865. Customs import duties. CUSTOMS (MACHINERY) (KINGSTON) ACT 1901-1916. The administration of the Customs law and the assessment, enforcement and collection of customs duties, is regulated by the Customs (Machinery) Act 1901, which, as slightly amended by the Customs Act 1916, is known as the Customs Act 1901-1916. Part II. dealing with administration, provides for the appointment of a Comptroller-General of Customs who, under the Minister (i.e., the Minister of Trade and Customs, who administers the Customs and Excise Acts) is the permanent head of the department, and has the chief control of the Customs throughout the Commonwealth. In each State there is a Collector of Customs who, subject to the Comptroller, is the chief officer of customs for the State. Power is given to the Minister and also (subject to the approval of the Minister) to the Comptroller, to delegate any of his powers under the Act. Provision is thus made for any degree of centralization or decentralization that may be required. Part III. defines goods which are subject to the control of the Customs, and provides for examination, entries, and securities generally. Part IV. deals with importation, the boarding of ships and report of cargo, the entry, unshipment. landing, and examination of goods; and prohibits the importation of certain goods, such as false money, pirated or blasphemous or obscene works, exhausted tea, and other goods injurious to health or morality. Part V. provides for the warehousing of goods. Part VI. deals with exportation. Part VII. provides for payment of duty on ships' stores consumed on the Australian coast (i.e. between the first port of arrival and the last port of departure of a ship). Part VIII. provides for the payment and computation of duties imposed by the Customs Tariff Acts, and for the determination of the value for duty of goods subject to ad valorem duty. Sections 138, 139, 140 and 148, relating to the highest duties to be charged, substitutes for dutiable goods, duty on parts, duty on condensed articles, and derelict goods are interesting and important as being the subject of judicial decisions. Sections 190, 191 and 192, empowering an officer to fasten hatchways and other openings into the holds, locking up, sealing and securing goods, and prohibiting the breaking of seals, are interesting on the same grounds. Provision is made for the prosecution and punishment of offences and the making of regulations. CUSTOMS TARIFF (KINGSTON-TURNER) ACT 1902. This was the first Commonwealth Customs Tariff Act imposing uniform rates of customs duties throughout Australia, introduced into the House of Representatives, 8th October, 1901, assented to 16th September, 1902. It provided that uniform duties of customs specified in the Tariff should be imposed as from 8th October, 1901, and from that date onwards the State Tariffs ceased to operate, and trade between the States became free, subject to the temporary exception, under section 95 of the Constitution, of the right of the State of Western Australia to levy duties on goods transferred from other States. CUSTOMS TARIFF BILL (BRITISH PREFERENCE) 1906. By this Bill, reserved for the Royal assent 12th October, 1906, a special schedule of import duties on a limited number of tariff items was passed for the purpose of giving preference, in the shape? of lower duties on goods manufactured in and imported from the United Kingdom than on goods manufactured in and imported from other countries, provided that such first mentioned goods were imported direct in British ships manned exclusively by white seamen. This Bill did not receive the Royal assent because in the opinion of the Imperial law officers it contained provisions contrary to treaties between Great Britain and certain foreign countries. CUSTOMS TARIFF (SOUTH AFRICAN PREFERENCE) 1906. This Act established the scheme of preferential duties of customs on certain goods the produce or manufacture of British Colonies or Protectorates in South Africa included within the South African Customs Union; assented to 12th October, 1906. CUSTOMS TARIFF (AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS) 1906. In anticipation of the revision of the Tariff then pending, this Act, assented to on 12th October, 1906, contained an instalment of amended increases of customs duties dealing specially with stripper, harvesters, stump-jump ploughs, and other agricultural implements and machinery. A special feature of this Act was section 4, which provided that if the Governor-General was satisfied that the cash prices at which stripper harvesters and drills manufactured in Australia were sold exceeded the prices thereunder set out, he might, by proclamation, reduce the rate of duty specified in the schedule in respect of stripper harvesters, but so that the reduction should not reduce the rate of duty below one-half the rate of duty imposed by that Act. CUSTOMS TARIFF (LYNE) ACT 1908-1911. This Act repeals section 5 of the Customs Tariff 1902, No. 14 of 1902, and the schedule of that Act, also the whole of the Customs Tariff 1906. A new scheme of customs duties was introduced and embodied in schedule A. A feature of this Act was the imposition of special duties set out in one column of the schedule, on a large quantity of goods, the produce of and manufacture of the United Kingdom shipped in the United Kingdom to Australia, at lower rates, compared with the rates of duty set out in another column. headed "General Tariff" applicable to all other goods. Amended by Customs Tariff Amendment 1908, Customs Tariff 1910, and Customs Tariff 1911, Customs Tariff Validation Act 1917. EXCISE (MACHINERY) ACT 1901. This Act provides for the administration of the Excise Acts. and the assessment, enforcement and collection of excise duties, on similar lines to those embodied in the Customs Act with regard to customs duties; and contains general provisions relating to the manufacture of goods and materials in respect of which excise duty is imposed by Parliament. EXCISE ACT 1918. This was an Act to amend the Excise Act 1901. Certain machinery clauses were altered, and a scale of fees for licensees to manufacture tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and snuff were fixed at from £5 to £500 per year. SPIRITS (MACHINERY) ACT 1906. This Act contains elaborate provisions for the granting of cer tificates in the prescribed form certifying that spirits are "Pure Australian Standard Brandy" or "Australian Blended Brandy |