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PROCLAMATION
| Australia to wit. (L.S.) Hopetoun, Governor-General. |
By His Excellency The Right Honorable The Earl of Hopetoun a Member of Her Majesty’s Most Honorable Privy Council, Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia.
WHEREAS Her Majesty has been graciously pleased by Commission under Her Royal Sign Manual and Signet, bearing date at St. James the twenty-ninth day of October, one thousand nine hundred, to constitute and appoint me, The Right Honorable John Adrian Louis, Earl of Hopetoun a Member of Her Majesty’s Most Honorable Privy Council; Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, to be Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty’s Commonwealth of Australia, I do hereby proclaim and declare that I have this day taken the prescribed Oaths before His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor of our State of New South Wales, in the Commonwealth of Australia, and that I have assumed the said Office of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia accordingly.
- Given under my Hand and Seal, at Sydney, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and one, and in the sixty-fourth year of Her Majesty’s Reign.
By His Excellency’s Command,
EDMUND BARTON.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
LETTERS PATENT passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, constituting the Office of Governor-General and Commander-in Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Letters Patent, Dated 29th October 1900.
Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India: To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:
Preamble.
Recites Imperial Act 63 & 64 Vict. c. 12 and Proclamation of 17th September 19000.WHEREAS, by an Act of Parliament passed on the Ninth day of July One thousand nine hundred, in the Sixty-fourth year of Our Reign, intituled “An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia,” it is enacted that “it shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day therein appointed, not being later than one year after this passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. But the Queen may, at any time after Proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth:”
And whereas We did on the seventeenth day of September One thousand nine hundred, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council declare by proclamation that, on and after the first day of January One thousand nine hundred and one, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania and also Western Australia, should be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia: And whereas by the said recited Act certain powers, functions, and authorities were declared to be vested in the Governor-General: And whereas We are desirous of making effectual and permanent provision for the office of Governor-General and Commander in chief in and over Our said Commonwealth of Australia, without making new Letters Patent on each demise of the said office Now know ye that We have thought fit to constitute, order, and declare, and do by these presents constitute order, and declare, that there shall be a Governor-General and Commander in Chief (hereinafter called the Governor-General)Office of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief constituted. in and over Our Commonwealth of Australia (hereinafter called Our said Commonwealth), and that the person who shall fill the said office of Governor-General shall be from time to time appointed by Commission under Our Sign Manual and Signet. And we do hereby authorize and command Our said Governor-General to do and execute, in due manner, all things that shall belong to his said command, and to the trust We have reposed in him, according to the several powers and authorities granted or appointed him by virtue of “The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900,” and of these present Letters Patent and of such Commission as may be issued to him under Our Sign Manual and Signet, and according to such InstructionsGovernor-General’s powers and authorities. as may from time to time be given to him under Our Sign Manual and Signet, or by Our Order in Our Privy Council, or by Us through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, and to such laws as shall hereafter be in force in Our said Commonwealth.
Great Seal. II. There shall be a Great Seal of and for Our said Commonwealth which Our said Governor-General shall keep and use for sealing all things whatsoever that shall pass the said Great Seal. Provided that until a Great Seal shall be provided the Private Seal of Our said Governor-General may be used as the Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Australia.
