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Reference :-

TELE C.O.885

16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

SIR,

No. 145.

(SOUTH AUSTRALIA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

[Powers of Deputy Governor.]

Royal Courts of Justice,

28th July, 1911.

We were honoured with your commands signified in Sir C. P. Lucas's letter of the 24th March last, stating that he was Law Officers, 27 February, 1911.

directed by you to acknowledge the receipt South Australia Letters Patent, 29 October, of our Report of the 27th February last,*

1900. South Africa Commission, 4 January, 1909, Law Officers, 23 June, 1894.

Law Officers, 22 August, 1894.

on the subject of the power of a deputy appointed by the Governor of South Australia to exercise those functions of the

New Zealand Letters Patent, 21 February, Governor which were vested in him by

1879.

New Zealand Act, No. 15, 1888. South Australia Act, No. 9, 1872.

statute.

That you gathered from our Report that in our opinion the only powers which the Governor was authorised to delegate by the Letters Patent were those which were vested in the Governor himself by that Instrument, and not those conferred upon him by statute.

That that opinion would render invalid all such acts performed since 1879 by Deputy Governors not only in South Australia, but in all the Australian States as had involved the exercise of statutory powers of the Governor. That these powers were precisely those which it was normally desirable that a Deputy Governor should exercise, and that the great majority of acts performed by Deputy Governors through- out that period would consequently be invalidated. That you felt, therefore, that it would be necessary to take some steps to remedy that state of affairs. But that before doing so you would be glad if we would be so good as to take into our considera- tion certain facts which you regretted were not brought before our notice in the letter from your Department on the 17th January last, and which might, perhaps, you thought, lead us to modify the opinion which we had given.

That it was pointed out in our Report that Clause XI. of the Letters Paten't only authorised the Governor to delegate all such powers and authorities as were vested in the Governor by the Letters Patent.

That in connexion with this clause Sir C. P. Lucas was, however, to invite special attention to the wording of Clause II. of the Letters Patent of the 29th October, 1900, which runs as follows:-

"We do hereby authorise, empower, and command our said Governor to do and execute all things that shall belong to his said Office, according to the tenor of these Our Letters Patent and of such Commission as may be issued to him under Our Sign Manual and Signet, and according to such Instructions as may from time to time be given to him under Our Sign Manual and Signet, or by Our Order in Our Privy Council or by Us through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, and to such laws as are now or shall hereafter be in force in Our State."

That this clause, it would be observed, empowered him " to do and execute all things that shall belong to his said Office," and successive Secretaries of State had acted upon the assumption that that expression was sufficiently wide to include all the Governor's powers, whatever their origin. That it was submitted that the words underlined indicated that it was not the intention of the Letters. Patent to enable the Governor to delegate only prerogative rights, and that it had always been under- stood that Clauses II. and XI. of the Letters Patent when read together were sufficient to enable him to delegate also the statutory powers. That Sir C. P. Lucas was to explain that no Colonial law created the Office of Governor, though the Governor was frequently referred to in, and powers were conferred upon him by, Colonial laws, and that it had hitherto been held that the combined effect of the Letters Patent and the

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