Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/699

 Cons.itutioroTs:utfA.s,ra,ia ADELAIDE AND VICINITY xxiii If this is the true construction of the words, inasmuch as all or nearly all the casual vacancies may occur in one of the four districts, that district may for a long period (perhaps lo or 12 years) be almost unrepresented in the Council. If, however, the words have the meaning which they would convey to any non- legal mind, "any other cause" would include vacancies caused by the retirement of members in consequence of effluxion of time, and assuming that eight new members had been elected, no election could take place to fill the vacancies caused by the retirement in consequence of effluxion of time of the eight members who had been longest in office ; or, to put it in another way, there could be no next periodic election. As this would cause the enforced retirement from the Council of the eight members who had been longest in office for three years, they would probably resign and stand for the election to add to the number of members of the Council. The President would have to issue writs to fill the eight casual vacancies caused by such resignations, and such resignations would have the effect of causing the eight members next longest in office to retire at the time fixed for the next periodic election, at which election they could not stand again, because no election could take place. In their turn they, also, would therefore probably resign, and so with the remaining eight, so that practically the whole Council would be dissolved. As the President would have to issue the writs to fill the vacancies caused by resignations and fix the dates for the consequent elections, and the Governor would have to issue the writs for the eight new members and fix the date for their election, complications of a most embarrassing nature might arise. There are grounds for holding either of these two constructions to be correct, but probably a court of law would uphold the former. Up to the present time there has been no dissolution of the two Houses, nor has there been any addition to the number of Councillors in pursuance of the Act now under discussion. It has been suggested that if writs were issued to increase the number of Councillors, any sitting member, instead of resigning his seat, might become a candidate, and, on election, resign his original seat. It has also been suggested that a member of one House, without resigning his seat in that House, may be elected a member of the other House, and sit in both Houses. There are no express words in the Constitution Act or its amendments prohibiting either of these things being done, but they would certainly be against the spirit of our constitution, to which the following fine words of Mr. Gladstone apply as strongly as they do to the British constitution : — " More, it must be admitted, than any other, it leaves open doors which lead into blind alleys, for it presumes more boldly than any other the good sense and the good faith of those who work it. The undoubted competency of each reaches even to the paralysis or destruction of the rest. The House of Commons is entitled to refuse every shilling of the supplies. That House, and also the House of Lords, is entitled to refuse its assent to every Bill presented to it. The Crown is entitled to make a thousand peers to-day, and as many to-morrow ; it may dissolve all and every Parliament before it proceeds to business ; may pardon the most atrocious crimes ; may declare war against all the world ; may conclude treaties involving unlimited responsibilities, and even vast expenditure without the consent, nay, without the knowledge of the Parliament, but in reversal of policy already known and sanctioned by the nation. But the assumption is that the depositaries of power will all respect one another ; will evince a consciousness that they are working in a common interest for a common end ; and they will be possessed together with not less than an average intelligence, of not less than an average sense of equity and of the public interest of right."