A.—4

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11th Day.] British and Foreign Shipping. [19 June, 1911. Mr. BUXTON— cont. to Mr. Brodeur largely met his point. The point as I understand it is this : The Act of 1894 was a Consolidation Act, and a Consolidation Act necessarily repeals various Acts in force—in fact, that is the object of a Consolidation Act. It was not intended, as I understand, that that Act should either extend or diminish the existing powers. It was intended to be purely a Consolidation Act. I gather from what Mr. Brodeur has said that in his view some of the clauses have repealed certain provisions of Acts affecting the Dominion of Canada before, which gave them greater powers than the Consolidation Act of 1894 gives them. If a mistake of that kind has occurred—l think Mr. Brodeur was not in the room when I began my speech—l repeat that we should be glad in such cases as that that steps should be taken definitely to validate certain Canadian laws affecting Canadian shipping and Canadian coastingtrade, the validity of which is in doubt. I should be very glad to meet him in respect of that matter. I think Sir Wilfrid will allow me to say that the Act of 1894 was intended—at all events, so I am advised—as a purely consolidating Act, neither giving nor taking away. Obviously it repeals certain Acts, and perhaps my legal adviser may have an opportunity of looking into it in view of what Mr. Brodeur has said, and the same applies to New Zealand. Dr. FINDLAY : It is not a purely Consolidation Act, because there are some changes made in the substantive law by the Act of 1894. Mr. BRODEUR : On the question of collisions. Mr BUXTON : It is a matter of legal opinion in all these Consolidation Acts, and at all events we shall be very glad as far as we can to meet that point. Really, I do not think there is any difference between us. Mr. BRODEUR : We now have a Bill before Parliament with the object of validating all these Acts, with the object of repealing certain sections of the Act of 1894 which conflict with our own legislation, and, of course, this will have to be submitted to His Majesty in Council. Mr. BUXTON : We will look into it., Mr. PEARCE : The view that the Commonwealth Government take up on this question is, that we derive our powers to legislate on this subject from the Constitution Act, and that there is no absolute limit of area, provided that the law is for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth and is not repugnant to an Imperial law applicable to the Commonwealth. Dr. FINDLAY : The effect of this has not been settled by any legal authority. In New Zealand they have settled it the other way. Mr. PEARCE : There is a difference of opinion as to the application of those words. We have taken the advice of our Crown Law Officers on it, and I have their Memorandum here, which is too lengthy to read, the general effect of which is, that unless there is some prohibition placed on some specific things to be done by us this Merchant Shipping Act does not interfere with us. Sir JOSEPH WARD : The Courts of New Zealand have settled it the other way. Mr. PEARCE : So far as the legislation we pass does not come into conflict with any direct prohibition, our legislation has full force under the Constitution Act.