V. Australien. 1415 251. Australia.
Such territory shall contain an arca of not less than one hundred square miles,
and such portion thereof as shall consist of Crown lands shall be granted to the Commonwealth
without any payment therefor.
The Parliament shall sit at Melbourne until it meet at the seat of Government.
126. The Queen may authorize the Governor-General to appoint any person,
or any persons jointly or severally, to be his deputy or deputies within any part of
the Commonwealth, and in that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the
Governor-General such powers and functions of the Governor-General as he thinks
fit to assign to such deputy or deputies, subject to any limitations expressed or
directions given by the Queen; but the appointment of such deputy or deputies
shall not affect the exercise by the Governor-General himself of any power or
function.
127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State
or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.
Chapter VIII. Alteration of the Constitution.
128. This Constitution shall not be altered except in the following manner :—
The proposed law for the alteration thereof must be passed by an absolute
majority of each House of the Parliament, and not less than two nor more six months
after its passage through both Houses the proposed law shall be submitted in each
State to the electors qualified to vote for the election of members of the House of
Representatives.
But if either House passes any such proposed law by an absolute majority,
and the other House rejects or fails to pass it or passes it with any amendment to
which the first-mentioned House will not agree, and if after an interval of three
months the first-mentioned House in the same or the next session agaın passes the
proposed law by an absoluute majority with or without any amendment which has
been made or agreed to by the other House, and such other House rejects or fails
to pass it or passes it with any amendment, to which the first-mentioned House will
not agree, the Governor-General may submit the proposed law as last proposed by
the first-mentioned House, and either with or without any amendments subsequntly
agreed to by both Houses, to the electors in each State qualified to vote for the
election of the House of Representatives.
When a proposed law is submitted to the electors the vote shall be taken in
such manner as the Parliament prescribes. But until the qualification of electors of
members of the House of Representatives becomes uniform throughout the Commonwealth,
only one-half the electors voting for and against the proposed law shall
be counted in any State in which adult suffrage prevails.
And if in a majority of the States a majority of the electors voting approve
the proposed law, and if a majority of all the electors voting also approve the proposed
law, it shall be presented to the Governor-General for the Queen’s assent.
No alteration diminishing the proportionate representation of any State in
either House of the Parliament, or the minimum number of representatives of a
