buted by the Commonwealth and the balance by the three contracting States in equal proportions. The works required to be constructed in each State were to be constructed by the Government of the particular State. A River Murray Commission was provided for, consisting of one representative of each of the contracting parties, which was to take over and control the works when completed. It was found when the construction of the works was entered upon that there were various unforeseen obstacles. For one thing, the increase in the cost of labour and material arising out of war conditions made it obvious that the original estimate of the total cost would be greatly exceeded. Moreover, trouble arose with the workmen engaged by the different State Governments to carry out constructional work on the Murray by reason of the fact that different minimum wages rates prevailed in the different States, and the workmen struck for the rate paid in the State which had the most favourable scale of wages. Again, it was apparent that greater co-operation between the States and greater co-ordination in the carrying out of the works entrusted to the different States was necessary. The result of these and other minor difficulties was that the work was hung up for many months, although there was an urgent demand for its completion in order to render possible large irrigation schemes contemplated for the settlement of returned soldiers and immigrants from Great Britain on the banks of the Murray.

As a result of conference between the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth and the Premiers of the contracting States held in 1920 an amending agreement was drawn up and signed by the representatives of the Commonwealth and of the three States. The agreement declared that it was subject to ratification by the Parliaments of the Commonwealth and the States of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, and was to come into force only when so ratified. The agreement provided for the incorporation of the River Murray Commission and made it "the constructing authority" under the principal agreement in place of the State Governments. Special provision was made for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes arising in connection with the construction of the works. Such disputes were to be dealt with by a special tribunal, to be constituted by Commonwealth legislation, and the Governments of the three contracting States agreed to take steps to induce their Parliaments to confer upon the Commonwealth power to enact such legislation pursuant to the powers in that behalf contained in the Commonwealth Constitution Act. The Commonwealth also agreed to contribute equally with the State Governments towards the cost of carrying out the works.

Act No. 1450 duly ratifies the amending agreement. The State of Victoria has also passed the proper ratifying legislation. The New South Wales Parliament, however, in making the ratification has amended the amending agreement by striking out clause 27. It is clear that this does not amount to a ratification by New South Wales within the meaning of the agreement, and therefore there is no power at present for the South Australian Government to bring Act No. 1450 into operation.

5. TASMANIA.

[Contributed by H. S. BAKER, Esq., LL.M.]
1919.

Main Roads.-No. 38 makes further provision for the maintenance of the main roads of the State. It establishes a Main Roads Advisory

Board, consisting of seven members-three to be Municipal Councillors, two to be "motorist members," and two to be Officers of the Department of Public Works. An annual appropriation of £5,000 together with the amount of motor taxes collected and paid into the Treasury, plus certain contributions payable annually by all municipalities in whose areas there are main roads, form the working funds of the Board. The Board is empowered to investigate as to what roads should be declared main roads and to advise the Governor in Council accordingly.

Soldiers' Settlements.-A short Act, passed in 1918, amending the Returned Soldiers' Settlement Act, 1916, and the Closer Settlement Act, 1913, improves in some minor respects the machinery of the earlier Acts and makes special provision for the granting of assistance to returned soldiers who are engaged in share-farming on private lands. A further amending Act passed in the session of 1919 extends the benefits of the Act to nurses, munition workers, and others who served outside Australia during the war and have returned to this State. The same Act empowers the Treasurer to raise by way of loan any sum not exceeding £1,350,000 for the purpose of providing funds for the acquisition of land for the purpose of settling returned soldiers. Inexperienced applicants for land are provided for by a section empowering the Board administering the Act to afford likely applicants an opportunity to learn farming by letting them into possession of farm allotments, provisionally, as tenants at will under the supervision of an instructor; but this provision is only applicable where the farming operations of at least five applicants can be readily and satisfactorily directed by the same instructor.

State Hydro-electric Works, No. 66, passed in 1918, authorizes expenditure up to £127,650 on various works connected with the extension of the State Hydro-electric scheme. Further expenditure on the same scheme to the amount of £545, 100 is authorized by Act No. 20 passed in the session of 1919.

Public Service.-Hitherto the State Public Service of Tasmania was subject to the jurisdiction of a Public Service Board, but the Act No. 69 abolishes the Board and substitutes therefor a Public Service Commissioner who is invested with general powers of a disciplinary nature. His jurisdiction does not extend to certain named departments of the Service nor to various senior officers. Any officer dissatisfied with a decision of the Commissioner is given a right of appeal to a specially constituted Board of Appeal. All officers must retire from the Service on reaching seventy years of age unless the Commissioner certifies that it is desirable that they should continue in the service.

Fruit-growers.-No. 72, passed in 1918, is an Act to enable advances to be made by the Government for the encouragement and assistance of the fruit industry. It is amended by an Act of 1919. The advances, which may only be made to a company registered under the Companies Act, 1869, must be for one or all of the following purposes: (1) The purchase of land on which a packing shed or pulping works is to be erected; (2) the erection of packing sheds; (3) the purchase of fruit-grading machinery; (4) the erection or purchase of pulping works; and may be up to 75 per cent. of the value of the land or of the packing shed or pulping works erected or to be erected; or, in the case of a loan for the purchase of grading machinery, up to 50 per cent. of the value of the machinery.

Public Trust Office.-The office of Public Trustee was established in 1912, following closely the New Zealand model. But the experience of

d

years has indicated the need for various improvements in its machinery
and extension of the powers of the Trustee. These are incorporated in
the Act No. 38. S. 8 enables the Public Trustee to administer estates of
the gross value of £400 or under without taking out probate by filing
in the Supreme Court an election so to do. If it subsequently appears
that the value of the estate exceeds £600 the Trustee must proceed to
obtain probate in the ordinary manner. A new section empowers the
Trustee to administer funds raised by public or private subscription,
and if necessary to apply to the Supreme Court for directions. The Act
further provides for the appointment in certain cases of "advisory
trustees to act in conjunction with the Public Trustee. The trust
property remains vested in the Public Trustee. Disputes may be settled
by a judge. A later clause provides for the appointment of the Public
Trustee as custodian trustee." In this case the management and control
remain in the hands of the Trustees already administering the estate, and
the Public Trustee is bound to perform what they direct. The trust
property, however, is vested in the Public Trustee as if he were sole
trustee. S. 13 adds substantially to his powers in ordinary cases.

Dairy Produce. No. 40 makes important additions to the principal Act of 1910. The owner of every butter factory is compelled to employ a certain number of milk testers and graders whose duty is to test and grade all milk brought to the factory for manufacture into butter or cheese and determine whether its quality is such as to permit of its manufacture. Regulations may be made under the Act fixing the price to be paid to the customer according to the quality as revealed by the test. It is made an offence to mix different grades of milk for the purpose of manufacture into dairy produce.

Ministerial and Parliamentary Allowances.-The allowance of £200 per annum to members of either House of the Legislature is increased by the Act No. 3 to £300. An Act passed in the same session fixes the payment to Ministers of the Crown at £700 in addition to their allowance as members of the Legislature. An additional £200 per year is provided for the Minister holding the office of Premier.

Dentists. No. 46 establishes a Dental Board, gives it general disciplinary powers over the dental profession, and fixes the qualifications requisite for admission to practice. Returned soldiers who practised dentistry while on active service are given certain concessions.

Homes.-No. 39 is " an Act to provide homes and advances for homes for persons of limited means.' The administration of the Act is placed in the hands of the trustees of the Agricultural Bank, and a Homes Act Fund of any sum up to £70,000 is provided for. The Trustees are empowered to set apart Crown lands for the purposes of the Act and to erect dwellings thereon; but the total cost of land and dwelling is not to exceed £700. The Trustees may let such dwellings or sell them on the rentpurchase system. The Trustees may also make advances up to £700 to be used for the erection or purchase of a dwelling or to discharge an encumbrance; but the sum advanced shall not exceed 90 per cent. of the total value of the property. Advances are to be repaid over a long period of years from twenty to forty-two years according to the nature of the dwelling.

Act No. 54 empowers the Treasurer to make advances to Municipal Councils to enable them to erect homes for persons in necessitous circumstances.

1

Osmiridium.-The existence of this precious metal in the State is responsible for the Act No. 49 to regulate traffic in regard to it. No person may buy osmiridium unless he is the holder of a buyer's licence, for which a fee of £5 must be paid. Every licensed buyer must keep an Osmiridium Register Book and observe various prescribed regulations.

Wild Animals and Birds.-The danger of extinction threatening the native fauna has occasioned a drastic measure designed for their protection. The administration of the Act is committed to the Police Force and to such other officers as may be appointed Inspectors. The Act provides : (1) for the declaration of areas as sanctuaries; (2) for the reservation of Crown lands as hunting grounds; (3) for the prohibition of the selling of any animal or bird; (4) for the restriction of the number of animals or birds which may be taken; (5) for the recognition of societies formed for the protection of animals and birds. All the native animals and birds are arranged in Schedules to the Act, some being wholly, some partly protected, and others left unprotected. The use of certain weapons is prohibited, and a heavy penalty is imposed upon anyone importing any fox, wolf, wild dog, or dingo.

Government Insurance.-No. 63 establishes a Government Insurance Office and authorizes it to carry on all classes of insurance business except life insurance.

Marriage and Divorce.-No. 65 was passed through Parliament in the previous session and reserved for the royal assent. The Act repeals s. 14 of the principal Act (copied from the English Act of 1857, s. 27) and enables a husband to present a petition on any of the following grounds: (1) Adultery; (2) desertion for four years; (3) habitual drunkenness and neglect during three years; (4) that at the time of presentation of the petition the wife has been imprisoned for a period of not less than three years and is still in prison under a commuted sentence for a capital crime or under sentence to penal servitude for seven years or upwards; or has within five years undergone frequent terms of imprisonment and has been sentenced in the aggregate to imprisonment for three years or upwards; (5) certain violent assaults upon the petitioner; (6) lunacy of wife for a period of not less in the aggregate than seven years within ten years immediately preceding the filing of the petition and the wife is unlikely to recover.

As to all grounds but the first, the jurisdiction of the Court is dependent upon the husband having been domiciled in Tasmania for a period of two years and upwards at the time of the institution of the suit. This latter provision is applied to all cases of a petitioning wife. The grounds upon which a wife may petition are the same as above set out, except that she may petition on the ground of desertion for two years. A provision follows (the same result appears to have been reached in England by judicial decision, Wilson v. Wilson, 1920, P. 20) that the Court "may grant a dissolution of marriage to a guilty petitioner "if satisfied that it is in the interest of all parties that the marriage should be dissolved." The Act concludes with the following provision, which, in view of the decision of the House of Lords in Lord Advocate v. Jaffrey, 1921, I A.C. 146, is of doubtful effect outside Tasmania : A deserted wife who was domiciled in Tasmania at the time of desertion shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to have retained her Tasmanian domicile notwithstanding that her husband may have since the desertion acquired any foreign domicile." Justices' Procedure. The new Act is an attempt to combine in a

single statute all the earlier statutes relating to proceedings before justices, whether exercising summary jurisdiction or investigating charges with a view to committal. It repeals the Magistrates' Summary Procedure Act (Sir John Jervis's Act) and the amendments thereof and the Magistrates' Criminal Procedure Acts and re-enacts the provisions of the repealed Acts with some modifications of form and arrangement. In addition it repeals the earlier statutes under which a defendant might appeal against a summary conviction or order either by applying for a statutory writ of prohibition or on a case stated by justices or by way of appeal to a Court of General Sessions.

In lieu of all these modes of appeal, the Act provides for an appeal to the Supreme Court or a judge thereof on an order to review, much on the same lines as in the State of Victoria. The appeal extends to questions of law and fact. On the return of the Court to review, the Court may exercise the inherent powers of the Court upon certiorari, prohibition, habeas corpus, mandamus, etc. An appeal lies from a decision of a judge to the Full Court. A section of the Act relating to the powers and duties of justices to require persons to find sureties for keeping the peace has been borrowed from New Zealand Legislation.

1920.

War Service Franchise.-The franchise for the Legislative Council is further extended by the Act No. 4, which confers the vote upon all members of His Majesty's forces who were on active service in the war. It extends to both soldiers and nurses who saw active service in whatever part of the British Empire they were raised.

Adoption of Children.-The Act No. 5 provides machinery, by way of application to a police magistrate, by which an order for the adoption of children under seventeen years of age may be obtained. In the case of a female child such application may be made by: (1) a husband and wife jointly; (2) a married woman alone with the written consent of her husband; (3) an unmarried woman or widow who is at least eighteen years older than the child; (4) an unmarried man or a widower who is at least forty years older than the child. In the case of a male child the same people may apply, but the applicant, if an unmarried man or a widower, must be at least eighteen years older than the child, and if an unmarried woman or a widow, must be at least thirty years older than the child. The magistrate must satisfy himself as to the fitness of the applicant. If the child is over twelve years of age an order cannot be made without the child's consent. Any person adopting a child in accordance with the foregoing provisions may receive a premium in consideration of such adoption, if the magistrate consents, but not otherwise.

S. 8 provides that an order of adoption made under the Act shall confer the surname of the adopting parent on the adopted child, in addition to the proper name of the child; and the adopted child shall for all purposes, civil and criminal, and as regards all legal and equitable liabilities, rights, benefits, privileges, and consequences of the natural relation of parent and child, be deemed in law to be the child born in lawful wedlock of the adopting parent. There are three restrictions upon the generality of this rule: (1) The child does not by such adoption acquire any right or interest in any property which would devolve on any child of the adopting parent under any deed or instrument made before the date