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Enclosure 2 in No. 1. Sir,— Downing Street, S.W., 23rd June, 1900. I am directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th instant on the subject of the provisions of the Australian Commonwealth Bill with regard to the right of appeal to the Privy Council. 2. Mr. Chamberlain desires me to transmit to you the accompanying copy of the Bill* as amended in Committee, and to point out to you that the effect of it is to leave the right of appeal practically on the same footing as it is in the Dominion of Canada, the only modification of the position as now existing in Canada being that in the restricted class of questions as to the limits inter se of the powers of the Commonwealth and of a State, or States, the leave to appeal will have to be obtained from the High Court instead of from the Privy Council itself; and that the existing right of appeal from the Supreme Court of a State remains entirely unimpaired. 3. In any question whether the Commonwealth or a State has infringed the rights or jurisdiction of another part of Her Majesty's Dominions, it will be for the Privy Council and not the High Court to decide whether leave to appeal shall be granted, and it will only be in regard to the very limited class of matters of purely domestic concern to Australia that it will be left to the High Court to grant or refuse an appeal from its own decision. I am, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand. H. Bertkam Cox. * Not printed. See clause 74 of Act.

No. 2. (New Zealand. —No. 55.) My Lobd,— Downing Street, 27th July, 1900. I have the honour to transmit to you, for the information of your Ministers, the accompanying copies of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act. I have, &c, J. Chamberlain. Governor the Eight Hon. the Earl of Banfurly, K.C.M.G., &c.

Enclosure 1 in No. 2. [63 & 64 Vict.] —CHAPTER 12. An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia.— [9 th July, 1900.] Whebeas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established: And whereas it is expedient to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : — Short Title. 1. This Act may be cited as " The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act." Act to extend to the Queen's successors. 2. The provisions of this Act referring to the Queen shall extend to Her Majesty's heirs and successors in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. Proclamation of Commonwealth. 3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day therein appointed, not being later than one year after the passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. But the Queen may, at any time after the Proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth. Commencement of Aot. 4. The Commonwealth shall be established, and the Constitution of the Commonwealth shall take effect, on and after the day so appointed. But the Parliaments of the several colonies may at any time after the passing of this Act make any such laws, to come into operation on the day so appointed, as they might have made if the Constitution had taken effect at the passing of this Act. Operation of the Constitution and laws. 5. This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be binding on the Courts, Judges, and people of every State and of every part of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any State; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in force on all British ships, the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and whose port of destination are in the Commonwealth.