State Rights in Australia
The question of State rights and Federal authority always seems capable of arousing the most intense passions ; last week it caused considerable disturbance at the Premiers' Conference in Australia. In .the early sessions it was involved with the question of Federal taxation ; it came to a head in the discussion of Federal control of marketing. A decision of the Privy Council has invalidated the Federal Government's Act regulating the marketing of dried fruits, as contrary to the clauses of the Constitution which provide for complete freedom of trade between the States ; except for Victoria, Queens- land and New South Wales, all States at the Conference voted against a resolution asking that, by a referendum to the people, the Constitution should be altered to give the Federal authority the powers it thought necessary. It is interesting that the same problem, implicit in every federal form of Government, is now occupying the attention of Canada and the U.S.A. as well as Australia. In this country, with no written constitution, we are apt to assume that the Federalists are in the right, as against the defenders of out-of-date Constitutions, and that modern developments make revision necessary.. But it is worth noticing also that often it is not technical advances but-merely policies of restricting production which call for the alterations desired -by the modern " Federalist."
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