Annual Cost.

The total expenditure in connection with the administration of Papua amounted in 1917-18 to £144,693. The revenue and receipts estimated (including the Commonwealth subsidy of £31,000) amounted to £113,122.

NORTHERN TERRITORY ACCEPTANCE ACT 1910.

This Act, assented to 16th November 1910, provided for the acceptance of the Northern Territory as a Territory under the authority of the Commonwealth and for the carrying out of the agreement for the surrender and acceptance.

By letters patent of Her late Majesty QUEEN VICTORIA, bearing date the 6th July 1863, and signed by warrant under the Queen's Sign Manual, the Northern Territory, as defined in this Act, was annexed to the Province of South Australia.

By the Constitution Act the Province of South Australia, including the Northern Territory of South Australia, became a part of the Commonwealth by the name of the State of South Australia.

On 7th December 1907, an agreement was entered into by the Commonwealth and the State of South Australia for the surrender of the Northern Territory by South Australia to the Commonwealth subject to certain terms and conditions. This agreement was ratified and approved by the Commonwealth Parliament, and by the legislation of South Australia. The principal terms of the agreement were as follows:

In consideration of the surrender of the Northern Territory and the property of the State of South Australia therein and certain other rights, the Commonwealth agreed to be responsible for the indebtedness of the State in respect of the Northern Territory as from the date of acceptance of such surrender and relieve the State from the said indebtedness. The Commonwealth agreed to construct a railway line from Port Darwin southward to a point on the northern boundary of South Australia proper which railway, with the railway from a point on the Port Augusta railway to connect therewith, is referred to as the Transcontinental Railway. The Commonwealth acquired from South Australia the Port Augusta railway, including all lands reserved for such a railway, together with all stations and other buildings, sidings, wharfs, and other accessories used in connection with the working of the said

railway except the railway carriages, trucks and other movable plant and rolling stock. The Commonwealth agreed to construct, as part of the Transcontinental Railway a railway from a point on the Port Augusta railway to connect with the other part of the Transcontinental Railway at a point on the northern boundary of South Australia proper. The Commonwealth agreed to pay the price of the Port Augusta Railway by becoming responsible for the amount of loans raised by the State for the purpose of constructing the said railway and by annually reimbursing the State the interest payable thereon and by paying annually into a Commonwealth sinking fund the amounts which the State has undertaken to pay into such a fund in connection with the said loans until the said loans are paid and redeemed by the Commonwealth.

In consideration of the covenants and agreements by the Commonwealth, the State surrendered to the Commonwealth the Northern Territory including the railway from Port Darwin southwards known as The Palmerston and Pine Creek Railway" and all the State's right, titles and interest in the control of all real and personal property in the Northern Territory.

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By section 7 of the Territory Acceptance Act all laws of South Australia in force in the Territory at the time of acceptance continued in force until altered or repealed by Commonwealth legislation. By section 8, all Courts of Justice in existence in the Territory at the time of its acceptance are to continue until other provision is made by or under any law of the Commonwealth. By section 10, all estates and interests held from the State of South Australia within the Territory at the time of its acceptance shall continue to be held from the Commonwealth on the same terms and conditions. By section 19, nothing in the Act is to be taken as an appropriation of any revenues or money..

NORTHERN TERRITORY ADMINISTRATION ACT (1910).

The Governor-General was by this Act authorized to appoint an Administrator to exercise all powers and functions assigned to him, under his commission, to act according to such instructions as may be given to him by the Minister of External Affairs. By section 5 where any law of the State of South Australia continues in force in the Territory by virtue of the Acceptance Act, it is subject to any Ordinance made by the Governor-General to have effect in the Territory as if it were a law of the Territory. Section 11 pro

vides that no Crown land in the Territory shall be sold or disposed of for any estate of freehold except in pursuance of some contract made before the passing of the Act. By section 13, until the Parliament makes other provisions for the Government of the Territory, the Governor-General in Council is empowered to make Ordinances having the force of law in the Territory. Section 12 gives the several Courts of South Australia, subject to any Ordinance to be made, the same jurisdiction for the enforcement of all laws in the Territory and the administration of justice therein as they had before the commencement of the Act.

Operation of South Australian Law.

The effect of the provisions of section 7 of the Acceptance Act and section 5 of the Administration Act were considered by the High Court in Buchanan and Another v. The Commonwealth and Another, (1913) 16 C.L.R., 315. It was held that so far as those sections purport to give effect in the Northern Territory, as laws of the Commonwealth, to laws of South Australia which impose taxation they are valid.

The executors of a will of a deceased person who owned certain property in the Northern Territory applied to the Judge of the Northern Territory to have an exemplified copy of the probate which had been granted in New South Wales re-sealed with the seal of the Northern Territory. It was decided that they were not entitled to have the exemplified copy of the probate so re-sealed except on payment, in respect of the property in the Northern Territory, of the succession and probate duties imposed by the Succession Duties Act 1893 (S.A.) and the Administration and Probate Act 1891 (S.A.).

Section 122 of the Constitution contains all the necessary power to legislate for a Territory, including the imposition or continuance of any kind of taxation. It does not need any assistance from section 51 of the Constitution in respect either of taxation, or of anything else. It would suffice for all its purposes if there were no section 51 at all. It is more ample than section 51 for all the purposes of a Territory. Per BARTON, Acting C.J. in Buchanan v. The Commonwealth, 16 C.L.R., at p. 327.

The Commonwealth Statutes in terms adopt and in effect re-enact the Acts of South Australia so far as they apply to the Territory in its new condition, and certainly include the two Acts

in question. But the clear power contained in section 122 of the Constitution is independent of that contained in section 51 sub-section (II.). The last-named power-Taxation; but so as not to discriminate between States or parts of States '-applies only to the Commonwealth proper. The Northern Territory, though 'annexed to South Australia, and in one sense a part of that political organism, was always known by the distinctive name of the Northern Territory,' and in the official despatches between the Government of South Australia and the Colonial Office references were made to South Australia proper and to the Northern Territory per WAY, C.J. in Adelaide Steamship Co. Ltd. v. Wells, 18 S.A.L.R., 111, at p. 115. And now that it is a Territory of the Commonwealth, it is not fused with it, and the provisions of sections 53 and 55 of the Constitution, intended to guard the Senate and the States, have no application to the Northern Territory. The taxation involved in the Northern Territory Acts is quite outside the ' taxation' referred to in section 55 of the Constitution. Consequently, assuming the South Australian Acts in question do not continue by mere force of cession, still their introduction by means of the Commonwealth Acts is unaffected by the provisions of section 55." Per ISAACS, J. in Buchanan v. The Commonwealth, 16 C.L.R., at pp. 334-335.

Judicial Officers.

The jurisdiction which, before the Northern Territory Acceptance Act 1910, was passed, a Special Magistrate of South Australia had under section 68 (2) of the Judiciary Act with respect to the summary conviction of persons charged with offences against the laws of the Commonwealth committed within the Northern Territory, was renewed both as to subject matter and locality by section 8 of the Northern Territory Acceptance Act 1910. It was held, therefore, that a Special Magistrate of the Northern Territory had jurisdiction to entertain and determine a complaint for an offence against the War Precautions Regulations 1915, committed in the Territory: Mitchell v. Barker, 24 C.L.R., 365.

Debts and Obligations.

The Northern Territory loans taken over by the Commonwealth from South Australia amounted, on 30th June 1918, to £2,772,515. The capital indebtedness of the Port Augusta-Oodnadatta Railway

transferred by South Australia to the Commonwealth, amounted on 30th June 1918, to £3,159,256. The total capital liabilities taken over by the Commonwealth were £5,931,178.

Annual Cost of Northern Territory.

A. Ordinary Annual Votes and Appropriations-
1918-19.

123. The Parliament of the Commonwealth may, with the consent of the Parliament of a State, and the approval of the majority of the electors of the State voting upon the question, increase, diminish, or otherwise alter the limits of the State, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed on, and may, with the like consent, make provision respecting the effect and operation of any increase or diminution or alteration of territory in relation to any State affected.

Formation of new States.

124. A new State may be formed by separation of territory from a State, but only with the consent of the Parliament thereof, and a new State may be formed by the union of two or more States or parts of States, but only with the consent of the Parliaments of the States affected.