Bond v Commonwealth [1903] HCA 2

1¢C.LR.] OF AUSTRALIA.

{HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

BOND . y - - A bs . . PLAINTIFF ;

AND

THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA . DEFENDANT.

High Court Procedure Rules, Order X XI.—The Commonwealth of Australia Consti- H.C. or A. 1903.

tution Act (63 & 64 Vict.) c. 12 ss. 69, 84—Commonwealth Public Service Act 1902 (No. 5 of 1902) s. 78 (1)—Public Service Act 1900 (Vict.) (No. 1721) s. 19— Demurrers—Cross-demurrers—Right to begin—Reading Pleadings—Hearing two counsel—Trransferred department —Officer retained— Existing and accruing rights—Payment of salary—Appropriation—State Statutes—Construction by State Court—Recognition by High Court,

On demurrers two counsel will be heard.

Upon the transference of a department of a State to the Commonwealth the rights of the officers of the department are definitely ascertained and settled, and an officer in such a department who is retained in the service of the Common- wealth preserves all his "existing and accruing rights."

Those rights include a right to be retained in the service at his existing rate of remuneration until his engagement is terminated or its conditions are varied by a competent authority,

Sec. 78 (1) of the Commonwealth Public Service Act has no operation upon the 'existing rights" declared by the Constitution Act to be preserved, and sec. 84 of the Constitution Act operates as a charge upon the Commonwealth revenue of a sufficient sum to give effect to it, and as a sufficient authority to the Executive Government of the Commonwealth to make the necessary payments to the persons entitled to receive them.

Semble: The High Court will be reluctant, as a general rule, to put a different construction upon the Statutes of a State from that which the Supreme Court of the State itself has declared to be their true construction ; at any rate unless its decision is directly invited by way of appeal, either from the same Court, or from the Court of another State in a case involving the construction of identical words.