Customs duties must be returned to the States. This clause, which, it will be perceived, might make it necessary, in order to secure enough revenue for Federal purposes, to impose a crushing weight of taxation on the States, was quickly assailed by the Bulletin as the "Braddon blot."
These were the most important points of difficulty, and the arrangements arrived at in respect to them. But it is necessary to mention one or two other matters in order that a clear understanding of the present position may be gained. The judicial power of the Commonwealth is to be vested in a High Court of Australia, which is to hear appeals from the Supreme Courts of the States, and from the inter-States Commission. This interference with the common-law right of all British subjects to appeal to the Privy Council, i.e. to their Sovereign, would be by way of depriving the Australian of his citizenship in the Empire. It was bitterly opposed by a large section of the community, especially amongst those lawyers whose opinion should carry most weight; a petition against it was presented to the Convention by the Australian National League; and it will probably be disallowed by the Imperial Parliament. It is a pity that a source of possible friction was not avoided by a hint, which might easily have been given by the Colonial Office, to Mr Reid and the other Premiers. But I have dealt more fully with this matter in a subsequent chapter.
The inter-States Commission is a body to be appointed for the proper administration of the federal laws relating to trade and commerce between the States of the Commonwealth. It will have jurisdiction, for instance, over the question of railway rates. There has been great rivalry on the borders between the different rail-
