A CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 236, 29 June 1908, Page 6

A CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION.

A development of uncommon interest has arisen out. of the Excise Act'passed by the Australian Parliament in 190 Q. Under that Act is established the system to which has beci) given the name of the " new protection," Certain excise duties were imposed on agricultural implements, with the proviso that the Act should not apply to goods manufactured in Australia " under conditions as to remuneration of labour which,are declared'by the President of the Court [the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration] to be fair and reasonable." Mr. H. V. M'JCay, of the Sunshine harvester works, applied for a declaration that'he. was paying " fair and reasonable wages," but his application ,was refused by Mr. Justice Higoins in a iiotablo judgment November 8 last. The High Court has now decided that ■ Parliament had no power under the Constitution to pass the Act in question, and Mil. Deakin and Sir Williaii Lyne have decided to find some other means for giving effcct to the " new protection." Sin William Lyne, it is reported to-day, talks of tamending the Constitution, and states that " arrangements will be made for taking a referendum." It frill probably be found that the decision of the High Court is based largely upon Section 55 of the Constitution, which enacts that " laws imposing taxation shall deal only "with the imposition of taxation, and any provision therein dealing with any other matter shall be of no effect." Of course there is provision for the amendment of the Constitution at any time, but the procedure is very involved, and no alteration can be .effected unless in a majority of the States a majority of the electors is obtained in favour of a change, it is curious that the High Court decision should have come so soon after American Supreme Court decisions on cognate questions, in which it was laid down that the Constitution contains no provision for the passage ■of laws constraining employers to give preference to unionists, arid that Congress went beyond its Constitutional powers also when it imposed liabilities upon " common carriers" for injuries that, their employees might sustain. It is not a welcome development that the Federal Government is ready to amend the Constitution in its very infancy,and to amend it so as to give effcct. to what is a hare-brained attempt to interfere with the operation of economic laws. America, has been very chary ,of amending her Constitution, which has only been altered or added to on six occasions in 120 years, and, as the Eight Hon. James Bryce points out in his monumental work on the American Commonwealth, only one unpopular decision has been given under the Constitution. The full text of the High Oonrt's judgment will be awaited with much interest, and in the meantime it is to be hoped that the Federal Government will hesitate beforo interfering with the Constitution.