Chapter XXIII: Section 92: provides that in each province the legislature may exclusively

make laws on the following subjects:

The amendment of the Constitution of the Province, except as
regards the office of Lieutenant-Governor;

Direct taxation within the province for provincial purposes;

The borrowing of money on the sole credit of the province;

The establishment and tenure of provincial offices, and the
appointment and payment of provincial officers;

The management and sale of the public lands;

The establishment, maintenance and management of prisons,
hospitals, asylums, charities, in and for the province;

Municipal institutions in the province;

Shop, saloon, tavern, auctioneer, and other licences, for
provincial, local or municipal purposes.

Local works and undertakings, excepting:—

“(_a_) Lines of steam or other ships, railways, canals,
telegraphs, and other works and undertakings connecting the
province with any other or others of the provinces, or extending
beyond the limits of the province.

“(_b_) Lines of steam ships between the province and any British
or foreign country.

“(_c_) Such works as, although wholly situate within the province,
are before or after their execution declared by the Parliament of
Canada to be for the general advantage of Canada or for the
advantage of two or more of the provinces.”

The incorporation of companies with provincial objects; marriage
and property and civil rights in the province;

The administration of justice in the province, civil and criminal
jurisdiction, together with the imposition of punishment by fine,
penalty, or imprisonment, and generally all matters of a merely
local or private nature.

Subsequent paragraphs provide that the provincial legislatures may exclusively make laws in relation to education, provide for uniformity of laws in certain provinces, and also deal with agriculture and immigration, with the proviso, however, that such laws shall have effect only so long and as far as they are not repugnant to any Act of the Canadian Parliament.

In the case of the Australian Commonwealth, it is the powers of the Central Parliament that are strictly defined and restricted, contrary to the course followed in the Canadian Constitution. As an indication of the powers left to the State Parliaments it may be well to specify the powers of the Central Parliament as set forth in the Constitution Act, Paragraphs 51 and 52:

Trade and commerce with other countries, and among the States;
taxation; bounties; borrowing money; postal, telegraphic,
telephonic, and other like services; naval and military defence;
lighthouses, &c.; astronomical and meteorological observations;
quarantine, fisheries, census and statistics; currency, coinage
and legal tender; banking, other than State banking; insurance;
weights and measures; bills of exchange and promissory notes;
bankruptcy and insolvency; copyright, patents and trade marks;
naturalisation and aliens; foreign corporations, and trading or
financial corporations within the Commonwealth; marriage and
divorce; invalid and old-age pensions; the service and execution
throughout the Commonwealth of the civil and criminal process, and
the judgments of the courts of the States; the recognition
throughout the Commonwealth of the laws and judicial proceedings
of the States; immigration and emigration; the influx of
criminals; external affairs; control of railways for naval and
military transport; the acquisition, with the consent of a State,
of railways of the State; railway construction and extension;
conciliation and arbitration in industrial disputes extending
beyond the limits of any State; etc.

Paragraph 107 provides that every power of the Parliament of a Colony shall, unless exclusively vested in the Parliament of the Commonwealth, or withdrawn from the Parliament of the State, continue as before. Paragraph 109 stipulates, however, that when a State law is inconsistent with the law of the Commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.

Certain powers specifically granted to the State Parliaments are set forth in the following paragraphs, which are of sufficient interest to be cited textually:

“112. After uniform duties of customs have been imposed, a State
may levy on imports or exports, or on goods passing into or out of
the State, such charges as may be necessary for executing the
inspection laws of the State; but the net produce of all charges
so levied shall be for the use of the Commonwealth; and any such
inspection laws may be annulled by the Parliament of the
Commonwealth.

“113. All fermented, distilled, or other intoxicating liquids
passing into any State or remaining therein for use, consumption,
sale, or storage, shall be subject to the laws of the State as if
such liquids had been produced in the State.

“114. A State shall not, without the consent of the Parliament of
the Commonwealth, raise or maintain any naval or military force,
or impose any tax on property of any kind belonging to the
Commonwealth, nor shall the Commonwealth impose any tax on
property of any kind belonging to a State.

“115. A State shall not coin money, nor make anything but gold and
silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts.

“117. A subject of the Queen, resident in any State, shall not be
subject in any other State to any disability or discrimination
which would not be equally applicable to him if he were a subject
of the Queen resident in such other State.

“118. Full faith and credit shall be given, throughout the
Commonwealth to the laws, the Public Acts and records, and the
judicial proceedings of every State.

“120. Every State shall make provision for the detention in its
prisons of persons accused or convicted of offences against the
laws of the Commonwealth, and for the punishment of persons
convicted of such offences, and the Parliament of the Commonwealth
may make laws to give effect to this provision.”

In South Africa where, owing to local circumstances, a purely federal system was held to be inappropriate, the powers granted to the subordinate provincial legislatures are much more restricted than in Australia and Canada. In the “South Africa Act, 1909,” Paragraph 59 simply provides that the (Central) “Parliament shall have full power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the union,” a formula similar to those used in the Canadian and Australian Constitutions as also in the Gladstonian Home Rule Bills. On the other hand, several paragraphs in