Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/706

 XXX ADELAIDE AND VICINITY. Notes on the Constitution of South Australia (As we are part of the British Empire, and subject to the sovereignty of the British Parliament, these Acts are of greater force than, and in case of conflict over-ride, our local Acts.) id) The Constitution Act, which was passed by the local Legislature in pursuance of powers given by the Imperial Acts to which I have refei'red, and other local Statutes, either amending or supplementing such Act. (c) The common law of England, which in South Australia as in Great Britain defines and limits the prerogatives of the Crown, and, in one meaning of these words (by the effect of the Privilege Act of 1872), the powers and privileges of the two Houses of Parliament. (d) Those conventions or constitutional maxims which have not the force of law, many of which are substantially similar to the British conventions. {e) The commission and instructions from the Queen to the Governor, which, />//er alia, define and limit his ])ower and duty in his law-making capacity, by providing that certain classes of Bills must be reserved for Her Majesty's consideration, and also to a certain extent indicate his relationship to his Ministerial advisers. There are grounds for asserting that the Standing Orders of the two Houses of Parliament of South Australia are part of the Constitution of the Province, and that the Standing Orders of the Houses of the British Parliament are not part of the Constitution of Great Britain. The Constitution Act of South Australia provides that Standing Orders may be made, which, after approval by the Governor, "shall become binding and of force" ; whilst the Standing Orders of the House ot Conuiions are only rules of practice compiled at the commencement of each session by the Speaker, based in some instances on resolutions of the House of Commons, and in others on the practice of that House. The consent of the Crown is not necessary to their validity, and they can be altered from day to day by new resolutions of the House. In both instances, however, important "constitutional conventions " may be, and in fact are, included in the .Standing Orders, which, as in the cases which arose in New Zealand and Queensland, may have most important results. This distinction is somewhat fine, and, from a constitutional point of view, the Standing Orders may in both cases be considered part of the respective Constitutions. If we contrast these two systems we see that the rigid part ot our Constitution is not much greater than the rigid part of the British Constitution. There are, however, two important points in which our Constitution cannot theoretically be so readily altered as the British Constitution : — Firstly — We have been practically forbidden to interfere with the more important prerogatives of the Crown. These are the same all over the liritish dominions, and the British Parliament has in practice reserved to itself the power to make any alteration. 1 do not say that this has ever been stated in so many words, but the Governor is forbidden by his instructions to make (commonly called assent to) any law which curtails the prerogatives of the Crown ; and Bills of this nature, if sent to England for the Queen's assent, are laid aside or disallowed. I will give two examples : The first Constitution Act passed in 1856 was disallowed because it attempted to regulate the manner in which Bills