h. b. higgins, an opponent of the implied immunities doctrine who would be appointed to the high court himself in 1906, wrote in response to the decisions in this and several other cases that "the man in the street is startled and puzzled. he sees a public official, enjoying a regular salary in the postal department, paying the victorian income-tax until federation, and then suddenly exempted from the tax because the post-office has passed over to federal control."