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dent of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, for a declaration as to what wages, and conditions of employment are fair and reasonable for labour employed in the manufacture of black steel sheets or galvanized sheets.

COMMONWEALTH EXPENDITURE IN BOUNTIES.

The following return, prepared for this work by the Commonwealth Treasury, shows the expenditure in bounties up to the end of the year 1917 :

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in the above return is

The total expenditure shown in £4,252,827 11 3.

No money has been paid by way of bounty under the Wood Pulp and Rock Phosphate Act 1912-1917.

§ 51. "UNIFORM THROUGHOUT THE COMMONWEALTH.” The Sugar Bounty Act 1905 (now repealed) discriminated between sugar produced from "white-grown" cane or beet, and sugar in the production of which coloured labour had been employed and on which no bounty could be claimed. The validity of this legislation was much discussed, but was never tested in the Courts. Does the principle of The King v. Barger, 6 C.L.R, 41, apply, and is such legislation void as an attempt to control methods of manufacture?

In this regard, an important distinction must be noted between a tax and a bounty. The tax in Barger's Case was held to be,

in reality, not a tax but a penalty for not paying “fair wages. In the case of a bounty no similar distinction applies. A bounty is a bounty, whatever the conditions of its grant. A tax and a penalty may be different things, but their respective opposites are the same thing a bounty or reward. So that a bounty is not less a bounty because it appears, on the face of the Act granting it, that its purpose is to control the process of production.

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Again, the power of the Commonwealth Parliament is to make laws with respect to bounties on the production or export of goods." A bounty on production is presumably for the purpose of encouraging or stimulating production; and it would appear that the Federal Parliament has the power to select not only the goods, the production of which it will encourage by means of bounties. but also the particular methods or conditions of production which it will so encourage. The States are forbidden, by section 90 of the Constitution, to stimulate production in this particular way, and therefore there is no reserve power of a State with which a Commonwealth bounty can conflict. In this view, a grant of bounties by the Commonwealth Parliament may be made upon any conditions, as to employment of labour or otherwise, which the Parliament chooses to impose-subject, of course, to the limitation that the bounty must be uniform throughout the Commonwealth."

This view has been adopted by the Parliament, not only in the Sugar Bounty Act 1905-1910, but also in the other Acts granting bounties, all of which contain conditions as to the payment of standard wages for labour employed in production.

In The King v. Barger, 6 C.L.R., at p. 70, the judgment of the majority of the High Court compared the words of limitation in this paragraph-" but so that such bounties shall be uniform throughout the Commonwealth "-with the words of limitation in the preceding paragraph (51 (11.) )— but so as not to discriminate between States or parts of States "-treating the two phrases as substantially identical. By these words, they said, "the Parliament is precluded from attempting to equalize the conditions which nature has made unequal."

Mr. Justice ISAACS, who dissented from the judgment of the majority, also referred to the question of discrimination as regards bounties, and the application of section 99 of the Constitution.

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He said :—" I wish to add, having regard to some observations that fell from me during the argument on the subject of bounties, that I recognize, in view of this decision, it may be argued that even a Bounty Act would fall within the prohibition of section 99. I can understand the contention being presented that discrimination between two necessarily includes proference for one, and therefore an enactment in the terms of the proviso of the Excise Tariff Act 1906 would invalidate a Bounty Act equally with a taxing Act. Of course, I express no opinion on the subject, but, as a good deal was said during the progress of the case, I wish, in view of the present decision, to guard myself against being thought to have any opinion one way or the other with respect to bounties : 6 C.L.R., at p. 111.

51. (iv.) Borrowing52 money on the public credit of the Commonwealth ;

§ 52. "BORROWING MONEY.”

LEGISLATION.

THE COMMONWEALTH INSCRIBED STOCK ACT 1911-1916. This legislation marks the beginning, small and unambitious in its way, of a system of Commonwealth borrowing, which subsequently assumed formidable dimensions. It was at first found to be a convenient method of borrowing and using public trust funds. It authorized the creation and issue of capital stock, called "Commonwealth Government Inscribed Stock," for raising loans authorized by any loan Act, and for paying such expenses of carrying the Act into effect as are declared by Order-in-Council to be properly payable out of capital. It provides for the establishment of registries in the Commonwealth and in London, the inscription and transfer of stock, the issue of stock certificates to bearer, and the creation of a stock redemption fund.

Section 44 (a), added in 1913, provided for the satisfaction of judgments obtained against the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom. This was done in order to fulfil the conditions required by Imperial law, so that Commonwealth stock might be a security in which a trustee in the United Kingdom may invest. See Colonial Stock Act 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. 62) and Treasury Order of 6th December 1900, made thereunder.

NAVAL LOAN ACT 1910.

The first Act passed authorizing the raising of a Commonwealth loan was the Naval Loan Act 1910. It was introduced by the

Deakin Administration, and it authorized the borrowing of £3,500,000 for the purpose of organizing naval defence and establishing the nucleus of a fleet unit. This Act was repealed in the following year by the Fisher Administration, which, with the help of additional taxation (chiefly the land tax) made provision for current naval expenditure and the acquisition of a portion of the fleet unit out of revenue.

LOAN ACT 1911.

The Loan Act 1911 was the first operative measure of its kind. It was declared by its preamble and schedule to be an Act to authorize the raising and expending of the sum of £2,460,476 for the following purposes:

1. For the construction of a railway from Kal-
goorlie to Port Augusta..

2. For the acquisition of land in the Federal
Capital Territory

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£1,000,000

600,000

3. For the purchase of land and erection of build-
ings in London ..

600,000

4. To redeem treasury bills issued by the Govern-
ment of South Australia on account of the
Northern Territory

..

226,000

5. To pay to the State of South Australia amount
expended from revenue towards construction
of railway from Port Augusta to Oodnadatta

LOAN ACT 1912.

34.476

£2,460,476

The Treasurer was authorized to raise and expend £529,526 to

be appropriated as follows:

1. For the acquisition for Commonwealth pur-
poses of property in Perth, Western Australia
and expenses incidental thereto.

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2. To redeem loans raised by the Government of
South Australia on account of the Northern
Territory

3. To redeem loans raised by the Government of
South Australia on account of the Port
Augusta Railway

£153,000

71,945

304,581

£529,526

LOAN ACT 1913.

The Treasurer was authorized to raise and expend £2,780,000

for the following purposes :

1. For the construction of a railway from Kal-
goorlie to Port Augusta

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£1,400,000

2. For the construction of a railway in the
Northern Territory from Pine Creek to the
Katherine River and southward

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3. For the construction of a railway from Port
Moresby to Astrolabe; and for the construc-
tion of wharves, Port Moresby and Samarai,
Papua

..

4. For the purchase of land for post and telegraph

purposes

400,000

60,000

170,000

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425,000

5. For the construction of conduits and for laying
wires under ground

6. For machinery, machine shops, and construc-
tion of wharves, Cockatoo Island, New South
Wales

7. For the erection of London offices

LOAN ACT 1914.

..

175,000

150,000

£2,780,000

By this Act a further sum of £2,000,000 for the construction of the railway from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta was authorized to be borrowed and expended.

LOAN ACT (No. 2) 1914.

This Act authorized the raising and application of £7,986,000

for the following purposes :

1. To redeem loans raised by the Government of
South Australia on account of the Northern
Territory

400,000

2. To redeem loans raised by the Government of
South Australia on account of the Port
Augusta Railway

£16,000

3. For the purchase of land for post and telegraph

purposes

120,000

4. For the construction of conduits and for laying
wires underground

450,000

5. To be paid into the consolidated revenue fund

7,000,000

Total

£7,986,000

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