Letters Patent. The advantages of going for this variation of the reservation option are several. It is less confrontational. Also there is no question that the plan to reserve such a Bill would leak since the power to reserve is already in Article XI of the Letters Patent and there would be no need to keep the Letters Patent amendment secret. Thirdly, it avoids any practical problems of delay, for example, involved in the preparation of vellum for The Queen's signature. Fourthly, it is an existing power in the Letters Patent and it is easier to defend its use.
a
4. I would like to add a few words about the option of refusal of assent. Mr Stone in his minute of 9 January 1992 has drawn attention to paragraph 8 of Royal Instructions XXVI. If the option of the Governor refusing assent were to be chosen, the question whether the Bill would fall under paragraph 8 would depend on what the Bill provided. Depending on the content of the Bill, the Bill might or might not be 'of an extraordinary nature and importance whereby Our prerogative
may be prejudiced'. In other words, a Bill might not be caught by paragraph 8. However, one could argue that Royal Instructions XXVI is not exhaustive. It only lists the cases in which the Governor must refuse assent. In other words, assent may be refused in other cases by virtue of the general discretionary power to refuse assent in Letters Patent X. (Incidentally, I am not sure that Mr Stone's suggestion concerning Letters Patent VII would run. I do not think this provision in the Letters Patent allows the Governor to refuse assent Bills on the ground that they are not for the peace, order and good government of the colony. I think its purpose is to enable the Governor with the advice and consent of the Council to make laws rather than empower him to reject Bills. It is the function of Royal Instructions XXVI to list Bills to which assent must be refused, presumably because they would not be conducive to good government).
5.
I have some specific points on the draft submission:
(a) Paragraph 1, lines 2-3. I would like to delete the words
'it could, under section 5 of the Colonial Laws Validity Act, decide to alter ...' and replace them by the words
'it is likely that section 5 of the Colonial Laws Validity Act would permit it ...' I suggest this amendment because section 1 of the Act is ambiguous on the question of definition of 'representative legislature'.
AELABV