AUSTRALIA 351
disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State. Authority is given for the Commonwealth to assume jurisdiction in regard to railways, light- houses, kc. ; marriage and divorce : emigration and immigration ; currency and banking ; weights and measures. The several State Parliaments retain legislative authority in all matters which are not transferred to the Federal Parliament, which is thus a government of limited and enumerated powers, the several State Parliaments retaining the residuary power of government over their respective territories With respect to money bills, the House of Representatives has special powers, and provision is made for cases of dis- agreement between the two Houses.
The Executive power, vested in the King, is exercised by the Governor- General, who is assisted by an Executive Council of responsible Ministers of State. These Ministers are, or must become within three months, members of the Federal Parliament ; they are paid salaries not exceeding, in all, 15,300*. a year. The Executive Government of the Commonwealth is constituted as follows : —
Governor-General. — Lord Funter of Lepe, P.C., G.C.M.G., Commander- in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia and its Dependencies (salary, £10,000).
Prime Minister and Attorney General. — Right Hon. W. M. Hughes, P. C., K.C.
Minister for the Navy. — Hon. William Henry Laird Smith.
Treasurer. — Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Cook P.C., G.C.M.G.
Minister of Defence. — Hon. George Foster Pearee.
Minister for Repatriation. — Hon. Edward Davis Milieu.
Public Works and Railways. — Hon. Littleton Ernest Groom.
Home and Territories. — Hon. Alexander Poynton, O.B.E.
Minister of Trade and Customs. — Hon. Walter Massy Greene.
Post master -General. — Hon. George Henry Wise.
Vice-President of the Executive Council. — Hon. Edward John Russell.
Assistant Minister for Defence. — Hon. Sir Granville de Laune Ryrie K.C.M.G., C.B., V.D.
Assistant Treasurer. — Hon. Arthur Stanislaus Rodger*.
High Commissioner for Commonwealth in London. — The Right Hon. Andrew Fisher, P.C. (appointed October 26, 1915), Australia House, Strand.
Commissioner J or Commonwealth in America. — Mark Sheldon, 61, Broad- way, New York.
The Constitution provides for a Federal Judicature, for an inter-State Commission on Trade and Commerce, for the transfer of State officials, State property, and State debts to the Commonwealth, and for alteration of the Constitution. A High Court (consisting of 7 judges) has been established, with original as well as appellate jurisdiction. The Interstate Commission va al8 ° ^ en - con3tituted - The selection of the Vass-Canberra site for the federal Capital was voted in the Senate and House of Representatives, and in 1910, the Commonwealth acquired from the State of New South W ales an area of approximately 912 square miles. An area of 28 square miles at Jervis Bay was also acquired for purposes of a Naval College, and the right to construct a railway from the Capital thereto. At present the
- ederal Government has its seat at Melbourne.
