It is generally believed that the State Governments will not tamely submit to be shorn of all practical control of their employees, and the new interpretation of the consstitutional law may be carried to London on an appeal to the Privy Council, but even this is only possible if the High Court itself gives consent. Assuming the judgement to stand the position of the State administrations and parliaments will be remarkable, even to grotes-quoness. The States own railways and tramways, ship-building yards, coal mines, and, in some instances, such minor enterprises as retail butchers' and fishmongers' shops. There is quite a lot of State social lisa of a sort, and the money to carry on these enterprises has to be voted by the State parliaments. Under this latest judgement the parliaments must vote the money with the dicta of the Federal Arbitration Court. But logically if the railway employees of the States come under the Federal Court, so also should the school teachers of the State schools, and the States employ nearly 25,000 teachers.
There is no saying where the matter would end, but one thing seems abundantly certain, namely that the so-called sovereign rights of the States are on the verge of being swept into oblivion. By its action the High Court has declared that the people did not know what they agreed to in 1900, and what they were only tilting at the pro-verbal windmills when they reject ed the proposals to alter the consstitution in 1911 and 1913.
The Labour Unions naturally profess joy over the judgement, though, it remains to be seen when ther they wil] not find themselves shorn of much of their influence in State polities. They cannot well blame a State Government for paying low wages, nor can they mise to pay high, if the authoris a Commonwealth Court to which they can only go as a lit gant, and over which they can exercise no control. Carried to its logical conclusion the judgement means the whole recasting of the Australian constitution, and the substitution of a Union government for a Federal one. It is now as definite as anything can be that a Federal convention will be called next year to reconsider the constitution. It may allow the High Court interpretation regarding State instrumentalities to stand; it must recast the State constitutions. On the other hand the convention may seck so to alter the constitution as to make it perfectly clear that the first judgement of the, High Court is the one which properly interprets the desires of the great mass of the people.
One thing is obvious, namely that it is. travesty upon all high political principles that a State should tax its people, and 2 Commonwealth court spend the proceeds. For the moment public comment is silent. The people are stunned by the explosion of the bombshell, and have not yet recovered speech.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.