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THE DEBATES REPRINTED FROM THE "PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES
(AUTHORISED EDITION).

Au
103

Foo

LONDON:

MESSRS. WYMAN & SONS, LIMITED, FETTER LANE, LONDON, E.C.

1900.

250
0758

900

NOV 27 1926

PREFACE.

THE object of this Reprint is to furnish a companion volume to the Debates of the Australian Federal Convention at Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne, and complete the history which they present of the shaping of the Australian Federal Constitution.

It contains, besides the official record of the debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the various memoranda which passed between the Australian delegates and Her Majesty's Government prior to the introduction of the Bill, to show the origin of the changes made in the draft received from Australia which were embodied in the Bill as introduced.

The official correspondence as to the modification made to enable Western Australia to enter the Commonwealth as an original State has also been included, and the papers showing the result of the reconsideration of the question by the Parliament of that Colony, and of the subsequent Referendum.

The extent to which the Bill as presented to the House of Commons differed from the draft prepared by the Convention and the Premiers' Conference at Melbourne, is shown by printing it with the clauses in which modifications were made, followed by the corresponding clauses in the draft, printed in italics.

The origin and object of the various amendments proposed and made during the passage of the Bill through the House of Commons are disclosed by the debates.

To complete the record, the Act has been included, and the Proclamation issued by Her Majesty in Council fixing the 1st day of January, 1901, as the date upon which the Colonies are to be united in the new Commonwealth.

December, 1900.

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