CONSTITUTIONS OF AUSTRALIA IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ARCHIVES

-----Original Message----- From: David Woods [mailto:Davidkilife@gmx.com] Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 1:31 AM To: David Subject: FW: Some updates if interested. Hello. Please find two replies. You may disseminate the enquiries if you choose to. The first reply is from the UK Parliamentary Archives where I asked for confirmation of Constitution Acts for Victoria, NSW, S.A, TAS and QLD. Richard from UK Parliament Archives has confirmed that none of these Acts were debated or any bound copies exist. He backs up the alleged enquiries by the Royal Archives pertaining to these Constitution Acts. If you have not received the Royal Archives UK letter please email me. Most people know that all State Constitutions other than NSW Constitution Act 1902, but includes NSW amendment in around 2002 has been portrayed using the Australian States Constitution Act 1907 allegedly by King Edward VII. There is parliament debate by the UK Parliament for this Act, but so far I cannot find the actual assent by the King. An argument could be “Did the Westminster Parliament and King Edward have the authority to legislate for the States of Commonwealth of Australia after the Commonwealth Constitution commenced in 1901. If the Westminster Parliament and his mother Queen Victoria consented to the Com Constitution Act to be the supreme law within Commonwealth of Australia. I think a Commonwealth Referendum or at least a State Referendum for each State concerned should have been held prior to the Westminster Parliament and King Edward VII enacting the Act pertaining to the States Constitutions and State Law. Also for all NSW folk, please disseminate if you choose, as what the UK Parliament Archives and Royal Archives have stated on the NSW Constitution Act 1902, please find enquires from Krista of NSW Parliament Library who also supplied the PDF attachment above, but I have put the title of the document to rename the PDF attachment. Also Krista has confirmed what the State Library has confirmed that no Referendum can be located to create the 1902 Constitution Act. REPLY FROM RICHARD FROM UK PARLIAMENTARY ARCHIVES. The reason I go to the UK Parliament archives as I have emails from the Privy Council and UK National Archives staff that any enquiry regarding any Act of UK or debated by the UK for Australia and so on for any other Commonwealth County you must go through the UK Parliamentary archives. From: WARD, Richard Sent: Thursday, 16 January 2014 11:55 PM To: David Woods Subject: RE: Hello Hi David Good Morning David I’ve had a search through our Archive records for reference to the Constitution Acts you listed in the e-mail your sent just prior to the festive period. These Acts being State of Victoria Constitution Act 1975, New South Wales Constitution Act 1902 (No 32), 1934 Queensland Constitution Amendment Act (No 35), 1934 South Australian Constitution Act (No 2151), 1934 Tasmanian Constitution Act (No 94) Unfortunately in each instance I could find no record of these Acts being passed by the UK Parliament. Consequently as the bills for these Acts were never presented to Parliament they were not debated either thus there would be no Hansard records for these Acts/Bills. As I said in a previous correspondence the UK Parliament makes a notation of an Act by chapter number (chapter 11 for example) while the Act you referenced make a number notation for the legislative document (No 32 for example) and that contradicts the UK drafting and immediately is an indicator that these Acts will not be UK Parliament legislation. Out of curiosity I checked the libraries of the house to see if they held bound volumes of Australian Acts of Parliament which they do not. I’m sorry we can’t be of any greater help but I would think after your previous unsuccessful queries on this matter and your subsequent liaising with a UK researcher that we where a last resort in at this point of enquiry. Good luck with your continuing research. Regards Richard Ward My enquiry to UK Parliament Archives. From: David Woods [mailto:Davidkilife@gmx.com] Sent: 20 December 2013 13:43 To: WARD, Richard Subject: Hello Importance: High Hi Richard, I sincerely want to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas if you celebrate this. If you are having time off, I sincerely hope it is very enjoyable and relaxing. If it is not too much trouble for you or anyone who may assist further with a few enquiries to locate Hansard or copies of Constitution Acts. I have been liaising with an UK researcher who cannot locate several enquiries at the UK National Archives etc. 1. I asked the researcher to try and locate the State of Victoria’s Constitution Act 1975 reserved 20th May 1975 and allegedly was given by order in Council by Her Majesty on 22nd October 1975 and was put into the State of Victoria Government Gazette dated 19th November 1975 on the left hand side on page 3, and also the confirmation on 26th November 1975 Gazette. The Researcher has stated that no patents or any notation could be located pertaining to this Act of 1975 within the UK National Archives. If it is possible, I would like to confirm whether this Act was debated in UK Parliament or does the UK Parliament have any bound copies etc. I sent on 28th October 2013 a letter by express and registered post to the UK Royal Archives. I do not believe I will get a reply from them even though I suppled my email address to contact me to obtain Royal Sign Manual and Signets or any orders for Constitutions and Governors and Governor General appointments. 2. If it is possible I am also seeking whether this Act was debated and if any bound copies or orders or Royal Sign Manual and Signet from King Edward VII to assent to the State of New South Wales Constitution Act 1902 assented 18th August 1902 Constitution Act 1902 No 32 as no order can be located from New South Wales State Library, the NSW Electoral Commission or the Australian National Archives. 3. If it is possible I am seeking whether this Act was debated and if any bound copies or orders or Royal Sign Manual and Signet from King George V. to assent to the States of Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania to create their Constitution Acts in the years of 1934 to 1935 as no order can be obtained with any of the States Libraries or from the Australian National Archives. The Queensland Constitution Act Amendment Act 1934 (24 Geo V, No 35) was reserved for His Majesty’s Assent and allegedly proclaimed on 13th April 1934. Constitution Act Amendment Act of 1934 (24 Geo V, No 35) . The South Australian Constitution Act 1934 was assented on 18th October 1934 CONSTITUTION ACT (NO 2151 OF 1934) and the Tasmanian Constitution Act 1934. CONSTITUTION ACT 1934 (25 GEO V, NO 94) was assented on 14th January 1935. If no one is available to perform these enquiries would you kindly let me know. With kind and sincere regards David Woods Reply from NSW Parliamentary Library on locating a Referendum for the NSW Constitution Act 1902. From: Krista Meulengracht Sent: Friday, 17 January 2014 10:04 AM To: 'David Woods' Subject: RE: Enquiry to obtain some Referendum information. Dear David I can find no evidence to suggest that there was a referendum in 1902 associated with the NSW Constitution Act. This legislation was enacted 18 August 1902, following the usual process of readings and debate in the houses of Parliament. I am attaching for your reference an excerpt from the book The Constitution of New South Wales by Anne Twomey (Federation Press, 2004) that considers the referenda topic. This source confirms the information from the Electoral Commission website and our own website that was initially provided to you by the State Library. I hope this satisfies your query, and good luck with your research. Kind regards Krista Krista Meulengracht REFERENCE LIBRARIAN Parliamentary Library DEPARTMENT OF PARLIAMENTARY SERVICES www.parliament.nsw.gov.au REPLY FROM NSW STATE LIBRARY. From: State Library of New South Wales [mailto:slnsw@libraryresearch.info] Sent: Monday, 23 December 2013 9:53 AM To: Davidkilife@gmx.com Subject: IR182597 Response to your General Reference question Response to your question #: IR182597 Your request is: From: David Woods Date: 11 December 2013 10:29 Subject: Request for some information To: library@sl.nsw.gov.au To the Manager, Hello. I am enquiring how I can obtain copies of certain referendums from the State Library as the Parliament Library advised me to enquire with the State Library first. I am trying to locate the writs and results to any Referendums that the NSW Parliament has conducted and also the writ and the copy of the Referendum for the Constitution Act 1902. With kind regards David Woods Our response is: Dear Mr Woods I am responding to your inquiry about locating the writs and results of referendums conducted by NSW Parliament. 1. RESULTS OF NSW REFERENDUMS: The results of NSW Referendums are published on the NSW Electoral commission's website and the NSW Parliament website. (a) NSW Electoral Commission website: (includes date, title and the number of votes for and against) http://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/past_results/referendums_and...etc (b) Results of referendums in New South Wales: (NSW Parliament website) A list of the 16 questions put to the voters of New South Wales in referendums since 1900, together with the result. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/Res...etc 2. WRITS: I found an example of a notice of a referendum published in the NSW Government Gazette, which includes details of the writ. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the writ published in any Government publications. (See example of gazette notice attached) I have contacted the NSW Parliamentary Library about locating the writs and here is their response: " I'm not sure that the writ itself is publicly available anywhere, but the particulars of it are published in the gazette as a special supplement". If you would like to search the notices for each NSW referendum, The State Library holds the NSW Government Gazette on microfilm. You will need to visit the State Library in person to search the NSW Government Gazettes by date. Title: Government gazette of the State of New South Wales [microform]. Call number: RAV/FM4/1154RR Years: Jan. 1, 1901-Jan. 26, 2001 Link to catalogue record: http://library.sl.nsw.gov.au/record=b3679670~S2 For information on using the NSW State Library, including Christmas & New Year opening hours: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/using/index.html Yours sincerely Bernie Carr Legal Information Access Centre State Library of NSW Number of documents attached to this message:1 Attached documents may be listed at the beginning or end of this email The status of your request is now closed. This is an automatic response - please do not reply to this email. Use the following links to: • Comment on our service • Submit another question Thank you for using our service. Ask a Librarian State Library of New South Wales