AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 92, 11 January 1908, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL.

. - 4 ! ■ ■ • ' ' STILL NO FINALITY. BT TEI.EGttAI'II— PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. Sydney, January 10. Tho Minister for Works, Mr. I)eo, speaking at a function, said that if the Foderal Government would only ask tho' Stato Govorn-s mont for a federal capital sito tho Government would bo able to reply in a very few hours. CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION. Tliu contention of tlie Now South Wales Government is that under the Constitution tho choice of the site for the Federal capital rests with New South Wales, or, at any rate; that tho Commonwealth Parliament ennnot acquire a site without the approval of New South Wales'. 1 Scction 125. of the Constitution Act states:— "Tho scat of government 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 tho Commonwealth, and shall bo in the Stato of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney." Messrs. Quick and Garran, in their commentary on tho Constitution, take tho view that in tho terms of the section tho concurrence ot the Now South Wales Parliament is not essontial. The New South Wales Government, however, base their case on the argument that if the territory is vested in and belongs to the Commonwealth it cannot belong to tho State, and there is, therefore, an alteration of the State's territory, nnd under the Constitution no alteration of territory can be made unless with the approval of the people of tho Stato concerned.