CHAPTER VII.-MISCELLANEOUS.

Seat of Government.

125. The seat of Government189 of the Commonwealth shall be determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney.

Such territory shall contain an area of not less than one hundred square miles, and such portion thereof as shall consist of Crown lands shall be granted to the Commonwealth without any payment therefor.

The Parliament shall sit at Melbourne until it meet at the seat of Government.

$ 189. "SEAT OF GOVERNMENT."

LEGISLATION.

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT DALGETTY ACT 1904.

By this Act it was determined that the Seat of Government of the Commonwealth should be within seventeen miles of Dalgetty in the State of New South Wales. The territory to be granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth, within which the Seat of Government was to contain an area not less than 900 square miles, and have access to the sea. The amount of the compensation to be paid by the Commonwealth for any land to be acquired by the Commonwealth within the Seat of Government or the surrounding territory should not exceed the value of the land on 1st January 1904, but in other respects the provisions of the Property for Public Purposes Acquisition Act 1901 was to apply to the acquisition of such land.

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT YASS-CANBERRA ACT 1908.

The Seat of Government Dalgetty Act 1904 was by this Act repealed, and it was determined that the Seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be in the district of Yass-Canberra in the State of New South Wales. The territory to be granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth for the Seat of Government shall contain an area not less than 900 square miles, and have access to the sea. Any person thereto authorized in writing by the Minister may, for the purpose of any survey of land with a view to ascertaining the territory proper to be granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth for the Seat of Government, enter upon and remain on any lands whether Crown lands of the State of New South Wales or not, and do thereon all things for the purposes of the survey, and shall do no more damage than is necessary. The amount of the compensation to be paid by the Commonwealth for any land to be acquired by the Commonwealth within the territory granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth for the Seat of Government shall not exceed the value of the land on the 8th October 1908, and in other respects the provisions of the Lands Acquisition Act 1906 shall apply to the acquisition of the land.

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT ACCEPTANCE ACT 1909.

The Governor-General is hereby authorized to declare by proclamation that, on and from a day to be fixed by the proclamation (in this Act referred to as the proclaimed day), the Territory described in the Second Schedule to this Act, and surrendered by the State of New South Wales to the Commonwealth, is accepted by the Commonwealth as a Territory of the Commonwealth. This Act was proclaimed to commence on 22nd January 1910: Government Gazette, 20th January 1910.

The Act ratified and confirmed an agreement made on 18th October 1909, between the Commonwealth of the one part and the State of New South Wales of the other part, by which the State agreed to surrender and the Commonwealth agreed to accept the Yass-Canberra Territory as Federal Territory within which the Seat of Government shall be established. The Act declared and determined" that the Seat of Government shall be in the Territory described in the Second Schedule of this Act." The Governor General was authorized to declare by proclamation that, on and

from a day to be fixed by the proclamation (in this Act referred to as the proclaimed day), the Territory describes in the Second Schedule to the Act, and surrendered by the State to the Commonwealth, "is accepted by the Commonwealth as a Territory of the Commonwealth." The effect of the proclamation was that, on and from the proclaimed day (1st January 1910) the Territory was in law accepted by the Commonwealth and acquired by the Commonwealth for the Seat of Government. All laws in force in the Territory immediately before the proclaimed day were, so far as applicable continued in force until other provisions were made. Where by any State laws in force in the Territory, on the proclaimed day, any power or function was vested in the Governor of the State, or in any authority of the State, that power or function in relation to the Territory was vested in and exercised or performed by the Governor-General, or the authority exercising similar powers and functions under the Commonwealth, as the case required or as the Governor-General directs: "Provided that the Governor-General may direct that any such power or function may be exercised or performed on behalf of the Commonwealth by the authority of the State in which it was previously vested; and while that direction remains in force the authority of the State shall, in regard to the exercise or performance of that power or function, be deemed to be an authority of the Commonwealth."

All estates and interests in any land in the Territory which were held by any person from the State immediately before the proclaimed day, subject to any law of the Commonwealth, continue to be held from the Commonwealth on the same terms and conditions as they were held from the State.

The High Court and the Justices thereof acting within the Territory were invested with the jurisdiction which immediately before the proclaimed day belonged to the Supreme Court of the State and the Justices thereof. The Governor-General was authorized to appoint such magistrates and officers as are necessary to execute the laws of the Territory and provide for the administration of justice thereunder.

The Seat of Government Act 1910 makes temporary provision for the administration and government of the Federal Territory in which the Seat of Government is situated.

JUDICIARY ACT 1903, Section 10.

The principal seat of the High Court is to be at the Seat of Government. Until the Seat of Government is established, the principal seat of the High Court shall be at such place as the GovernorGeneral from time to time appoints.

COMMONWEALTH CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION ACT 1904.

By section 52 the principal Registry shall, when the Seat of Government is established within Federal territory, be situated at the Seat of Government, but until that time the Principal Registry shall be situated at such place as the Minister directs.

Acquisition of Land.

On 1st May 1915, the Commonwealth, pursuant to the Lands Acquisition Act 1906, compulsorily acquired certain land of the respondent at Jervis Bay, then in the State of New South Wales. On 25th August 1915, the respondent made a claim for compensation in respect of such acquisition. On 4th September 1915, the Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915, came into operation, and the land in question thereafter was within territory acquired by the Commonwealth for the Seat of Government. On 5th May 1916, the respondent refused an offer which had been made to him in respect of his claim for compensation, and on 7th March, 1917, by writ of summons instituted an action in the Supreme Court of New South Wales against the Commonwealth to recover compensation. Held, that the cause of action arose on 5th May 1916; that the jurisdiction which the Supreme Court of New South Wales originally had in respect of the land was taken away by section 8 of the Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909 (which is incorporated in the Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915, by section 4 thereof); that that Court was not a State Court of competent jurisdiction within the meaning of section 37 of the Lands Acquisition Act 1906; and, therefore, that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the action. Woodhill v. Commonwealth of Australia, 17 S.R., 224, reversed: Commonwealth v. Woodhill, 23 C.L.R., 482; 18 S R., 100.

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Power to Her Majesty to authorize Governor-General to appoint deputies.

126. The Queen may authorize the GovernorGeneral to appoint any person, or any persons jointly or severally, to be his deputy or deputies within any

part of the Commonwealth, and in that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the Governor-General such powers and functions of the Governor-General as he thinks fit to assign to such deputy or deputies, subject to any limitations expressed or directions given by the Queen; but the appointment of such deputy or deputies shall not affect the exercise by the GovernorGeneral himself of any power or function.

Aborigines not to be counted in reckoning population.

127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.