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The fact is that the word "supremacy," so often used in this
controversy, is one of ambiguous meaning. Parliament is supreme in the
United Kingdom, Parliament is likewise supreme in New Zealand; but the
two supremacies are of widely different kinds. Supremacy consists of two
ingredients--authority to enact and power to enforce; and without the
latter the former is little more than a legal figment, which may have no
more practical importance than the theoretical right of veto which is
retained by the Crown. Mr. Balfour, speaking on the second reading
debate of the 1893 Bill, referred to this matter as follows:--
"Legally, of course, the Imperial Parliament would be supreme: no
one has doubted it. But what layman takes the slightest interest
in these paper supremacies? For my part I take no more interest in
the question of whether the Imperial Parliament is on paper
superior to the Irish Parliament, than I do as to the order of
precedence at a London dinner party. The thing is of no public
interest or importance whatever.


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