“120. Every State shall make provision for the detention in its prisons of persons accused or convicted of offences against the laws of the Commonwealth, and for the punishment of persons convicted of such offences, and the Parliament of the Commonwealth may make laws to give effect to this provision.”
In South Africa where, owing to local circumstances, a purely federal system was held to be inappropriate, the powers granted to the subordinate provincial legislatures are much more restricted than in Australia and Canada. In the “South Africa Act, 1909,” Paragraph 59 simply provides that the (Central) “Parliament shall have full power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the union,” a formula similar to those used in the Canadian and Australian Constitutions as also in the Gladstonian Home Rule Bills. On the other hand, several paragraphs in Section 5 dealing with the provinces almost recall the centralising tendencies of France, such as for instance, the provision that the Governor-General in Council is to appoint the administrator, or Chief Executive Officer, of the province, in whose name all executive acts relating to provincial affairs shall be done—an official who presents a certain resemblance to the French Prefect.
The powers reserved to the Executive Committee of the Provincial Council, presided over by the Administrator, comprise:
Taxation within the province;
The borrowing of money on its sole credit;
Education, other than higher education;
Agriculture;
Hospitals, charitable, municipal and other local institutions;
Local works and undertakings within the province, other than railways and harbours and bridges connecting two provinces;
The imposition of fines, penalties, or imprisonment for enforcing provincial laws and generally all matters which, in the opinion of the Governor-General in Council, are of a merely local or private nature in the province.