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Reference...
STATUS OF COFONIAL REGULATIONS.
Extract from Judgement delivered by Lord Hobhouse on Appeal from Supreme
Court of Western Australia (J.C. 1895) (P,235)
Shenton V. Defendant
Smith Plaintiff
"As for the Regulations their Lordships again ✔
that they are merely directions agree with Stone J. given by the Crown to the Governments of Crown Colonies for general guidance and that they do not constitute a contract between the Crown and its servants. In the heading they are stated to be 'printed for the information and guidance of Her Majesty's Colonies and of all Her Majesty's officers subordinate to them'. They are alterable from time to time without any assent on the part of Government servants which could not be done if they were part of a contract with those servants. On the face of them it is pointed out (See Reg 64) to be the general rule in Crown Colonies that offices are holden during Her Majesty's pleasure. The difficulty of dismissing servants whose continuance in office is detrimental to the State would, if it were necessary to prove some offence to the satisfaction of a jury be such as seriously to impede the working of the public service. No authority legal or constitutional has been produced to countenance the doctrine that persons taking service with a Colonial Government to whom the the Regulations have been addressed can insist upon holding office till removed according to the process laid down. Any Government which departs from the Regulations is amenable not to the servant dismisseā but to its own official superiors to whom it may be able to justify its action in any particular case
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