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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 885

15 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

SIR,

No. 152.

(AUSTRALIA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

[Proposed amendment of the Pacific Cable Act, 1901.]

Royal Courts of Justice, June 3, 1902. We were honoured by your commands, signified to us in Mr. H. Bertram Cox's letter of the 13th of May last, stating that he was directed by you to lay before us a despatch, No. 134, of the 13th of December last from the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia, together with the Minute and its enclosures received from his Ministers and transmitted therewith, and to ask for the favour of our report upon the necessity or desirability of amending the Pacific Cable Act, 1901, as proposed therein.

That Mr. Bertram Cox was to point out that the Act (1 Edw. VII. c. 31), waa passed on the 31st of August, 1901, and that the Commonwealth had assumed control over the State telegraphs under the provisions of section 69 of the Constitution some six months earlier on the 1st of March; and that it would, therefore, seem possible that at the time when the Act was passed, the Pacific Cable was considered to be excluded from the ordinary telegraphs, and to be the subject of a special arrangement with the States of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

correct,

Contract,

31 Decem-

That if, however, the opinion of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth was that as from the 1st of March, 1901, all the powers and functions together with all the current obligations of the three States in respect of the contract relating to the Pacific Cable lad been vested in the Commonwealth, it would appear that the rights of the latter under Clause 6 of the Contract (n copy of which accompanied his letter), were seriously affected by the Pacific Cable Act, 1901, unless upon a reasonable construction ber, 1900. of that Act, the States of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, might be held to include their joint-assigns the Commonwealth of Australia, the assignment being within the contemplation of Section 69 of the Constitution under the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 63 and 64 Vict., c. 12.

That if such a construction was inadmissible, and it was necessary to amend the Pacific Cable Act, he was to point out that the form of amendment proposed by the Federal Government would require the entire repcal and re-enactment of that Act.

That Mr. Bertram Cox was to forward a letter, together with the enclosures trans- Treas., 13 mitted therewith, from the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury to whom this March. matter had been referred for consideration, and that he was to say that you were inclined to concur in the terms of their Lordship's proposed Bill, subject to the amendment thereof referred to in the next paragraph.

That owing to the death of Sir A. Clarke, the Honourable H. Copeland was the only representative surviving of those appointed by the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, and that you were of opinion that his appointment as a representative of the Government of the Commonwealth should be a provisional one, and that the second section of the Bill should be amended accordingly.

That Mr. Bertram Cox was to enclose copies of telegrams dated the 15th of March and 8th of May, which had been exchanged between you and Lord Hopetoun, from which it would appear that the Government of the Commonwealth concurred in the view expressed in the preceding paragraph.

That Mr. Bertram Cox was to request us to be good enough to take these papers into our consideration and to report

(1) Whether the Federal Government had legally succeeded to the rights of the three States under the Pacific Cable Contract ?

(2) Whether, in order to give full effect to the rights of the Federal Government so acquired, it would be necessary (and if not necessary, whether it would be desirable) to amend the Pacific Cable Act, 1901 ?

(3) If such amendment were necessary or desirable, in what form such amendment should be carried out?

11990-25-6/1902 Wt 2767 D & S

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