Journal of the Bahamas Historical Society, Volume 5 (October 1983)

CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY IN THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 1946-47: THE GOVERNOR AND THE ASSEMBLY
by Tracey Lynn Thompson

Bahamian historiography has not explained in detail how the Constitution of 1728-1964 divided authority among the four branches of the Legislature although that distribution shaped the Colony's economic, social, and political development for more than two hundred years. Philip Cash's "Colonial Policies and Outside Influences: A Study of Bahamian History 1919-1947" (1980), drawn largely from Colonial Office documents, seems to be the only attempt to more than sketch what rights and privileges each branch of government held, or claimed, during this period.

The scholar curious about constitutional affairs in this century must turn to Colonial Office documents, to successive editions of the Manual of Procedure in the Business of the General Assembly, and to minutes and proceedings of the Legislature in order to uncover who claimed responsibility for what activity. Those sources, together with Philip Cash's a analysis, have informed the following study, which probes the institutional weaknesses of the local Governor during the seven months of the legislative session 1946-47. It looks closely at money legis-tlation, that catalyst of administrative action: at what it was and who controlled it. It discloses how one branch of the Legislature, the Assembly, was ableto overwhelm the others.

The local Legislature embraced four separate institutions; a Govenror whom the Crown in the United Kingdom appointed;¹ a Governor-in-Council, comprising the Governor together with three members appointed by the Crown who held their seats ex officio and at most six unofficial members whom the Governor could appoint, all otherwise known as the Executive Council;² a Legislative Council of not more than nine members, all of whom the Governor could appoint;³ and a House of Assembly of twenty-nine members, all elected, representing fifteen districts.⁴

The Governor, holding executive authority, was responsible for administering the Colony. The Executive Council advised the Governor⁵ and compelled him. The Legislative Council initiated and amended legislation, except money legislation.⁶ The Assembly initiated and amended legislation of all kinds.⁷

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END NOTES

1. "Letters Patent dated 8 September 1909", Clauses I, III, in Statute Law of the Bahama Islands 1799-1957, rev. ed, 6 vols. (Toronto, Canada: Government of the Colony of the Bahama Islands, 1957) vol. I
2. "Letters Patent dated 8 September 1909", Clause IV; "Royal Instructions dated 8 September 1909", Clause II, in Statute Law 1799-1957, vol. I
3. "Letters Patent dated 8 September 1909", Clause V; "Royal Instructions dated 8 September 1909", Clause XIV; "Letters Patent dated 12th January 1841 establishing separate Executive and Legislative Councils for the Bahamas" in Statute Law 1799-1957, vol. I
4. Great Britain, Colonial Office, Annual Report on the Bahama Islands for the Year 1946 (London: H.M.S.O., 1947), 42.
5. "Letters Patent dated 8 September 1909", Clause IV, in Statute Law 1799-1957, vol. I.
6. Harcourt Malcolm, ed., Manual of Procedure in the Business of the General Assembly, 2nd ed. (Nassau: The House of Assembly, 1934) 113-124; "Letters Patent dated 8 September 1909", Clause VIII, in Statute Law 1799-1957, vol. I.
7. Ibid.