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14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

C.O.885

SIR,

No. 134.

(WESTERN AUSTRALIA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Royal Courts of Justice, March 29, 1897. We were honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 3rd instant, stating that, with reference to our Reports of the 27th January, 22nd June, and 21st October 1896,* respecting the Petitions of Right submitted from Western Australia by Mr. W. Wilkinson and the Western Australian Land Company. he was directed to transmit, for our consideration, a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of that Colony forwarding a Minute by his Prime Minister objecting to the issue of Her Majesty's fiat on the grounds set forth.

That Mr. Wingfield was, at the same time, to transmit to us copies of reports of previous Law Officers bearing on the question of the right of Her Majesty to issue Her fiat in cases against the Crown in Colonies possessing responsible Government, as well as copies of our own reports on the cases now in question, together with a copy of the Local Act, No. 7, of 1867; and that he was to request that we would take those papers into consideration and furnish you with our opinion upon the following questions, and also with any general observations which we might wish to offer on the points raised in Sir John Forrest's Minute:--

1. Are the endorsed petitions the property of the petitioners, and should they have been delivered to them at once when received by the Governor?

2. Is the right to petition Her Majesty a common law right personal to every British subject?

3. Is this right, in Western Australia, taken away or restricted by the local Act, 31 Victoria, No. 7?

4. Is there any doubt as to the constitutional right of Her Majesty to grant Her

fiat addressed to the Supreme Court of a Colony where, as in Western Australia, the English common law prevails?

5. If the petition is in proper form, and discloses a proper case, is the fiat granted as a matter of course; or can it be constitutionally refused?

6. Is the object of the fiat to prevent a denial of justice, and may it be granted even though the Governor of a Colony, acting on the advice of his responsible Ministers, may have refused to refer to the Supreme Court a petition for redress presented to

him under authority of a Colonial statute as in the present case?

7. Has the Secretary of State for the Colonies any discretionary power to withhold

a petition from Her Majesty, or to delay it longer than is necessary to obtain advice

as to its being in form, and as to its raising a proper case?

8. Has the Colonial Government any discretionary power to prevent the petition

from reaching the Secretary of State, or to hinder the petitioner from acting upon the petition when returned with Her Majesty's fiat?

9. Is the question of the applicability of the arbitration clause to the matters raised in the Western Australian Land Company's petition within the province of the Secretary of State to decide with a view to stopping the petition; or is it one for decision by the Supreme Court in the proceedings on the petition?

We have taken the matter into our consideration, and, in obedience to your commands, have the honour to-

Report

that-1. The endorsed petitions ought at once to have been delivered to the petitioners by the Governor when received by him.

2. The right to petition Her Majesty is a common law right personal to any British subject, so long as the petition is presented in the regular and constitutional way.

3. This right is not taken away in Western Australia by the local Act, 31 Victoria, No. 7. That Act is an enabling one. If a petitioner chose not to take advantage of its provisions but addressed a petition to Her Majesty direct, the fact that a remedy is available in the Colony might be a reason for refusing to endorse the petition. But in a case where leave has been refused in the Colony, the right of petitioning Her Majesty is in no way restricted by this local Act.

* Nos. 101, 110, and 117.

0 96396.-12. 25.--4/97.