way systems, specially low rates being charged to attract trade from one colony to another. This has proved to be a most difficult matter to settle. I need only mention further that the Commonwealth has no powers except those specially delegated to it, all other matters resting in the control of the States; that the name "Commonwealth" was chosen, after much discussion, as being preferable to "Federation"; and that the members of each House are to be paid £400 a year each for their services.
The Federal Constitution can only be amended by an absolute majority of the members of each House of the Federal Parliament. The amendment is then to be submitted to the people by means of the referendum, and has to be accepted by a majority of the people of the Commonwealth, as well as by a majority of the States, before it becomes law. These precautions are held to be necessary, in the interests of the smaller States more especially. For if the Constitution were subject to any ready method of amendment, any provisions they might make at the outset for their preservation as States might be swept away by subsequent legislation.
The results that I have summarised were arrived at after three meetings of the Convention. Between the first and the second meeting the draft Bill was submitted to the various Parliaments, and many amendments were made. These were taken into consideration at a meeting in Sydney, which adjourned to Melbourne before it could finish its sittings. I have given the final results, attained after the Convention, all adjournments included, had sat for about a year, from March 1897 to March 17, 1898.
The next step was the submission of the Constitution Bill to the people, as provided in the Enabling Acts.
