Phillips v Lynch, and the Minister for Lands [1907] HCA 34

12 HIGH COURT (1907.

(HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

PHILLIPS . . 4 Z 7 3 _ . APPELLANT; AND

LYNCH, anp THE MINISTER FOR LANDS . RESPONDENTS.

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

H.C. or A. Crown Lands Act 1889 (N.S.W.) (53 Vict. No. 21), sec. 47—Married Women's

1907. Property Act 1901 (N.S, W.)—Crown Lands Act Amendment Act 1903 (N.S. W.)

— (No. 15 of 1903), secs. 3, 17—Right of married woman to acquire additional Sypyey, conditional purchase—" Original application" Construction.

ie Under the Crown Lands Acts conditional purchases of Crown lands may be

made by application to the Crown in the prescribed manner. By sec. 47 of

pence, the Crown Lands Act 1889 a married woman living with her husband is pro-

nee. hibited fom conditionally purchasing Crown lands under the Crown Lands

Acts, but under the decision of the Supreme Court in Hx parte Luke, (1901) 1 S.R. (N.S.\V.), 322, she may out of moneys belonging to her separate estate acquire a conditional purchase by transfer from the holder.

Held, affirming the decision of the Supreme Court, that the general enabling words of sec. 3 of the Crown Lands Act Amendment Act 1903, which provides, inter alia, that 'the holder of any conditional purchase" may apply for additional Crown land to be held as an additional conditional purchase, do not repeal the special prohibition as to married women contained in sec. 47 of the Act of 1889; and that nothing in the provisions of the Married Women's Property Act 1901 has that effect.

But held, reversing the decision of the Supreme Court, that sec. 17 of the Crown Lands Act Amendment Act 1903, confers upon a married woman, living with her husband, who has become the holder of a conditional purchase by transfer from the holder, and has obtained the consent of the Minister to her application, the right to apply to the Crown for an additional conditional purchase in virtue of her holding, and to acquire it,