the respondent pedder was a superintendent of police in tasmania, and he was represented by the attorney-general of tasmania, sir herbert nicholls. nicholls conceded that it was a necessary consequence of a federal system of government that there were limits on the powers of the state and federal governments with respect to each other, and that the states "have no power by taxation or otherwise to retard or burden or in any other manner control the operation of the constitutional laws of the commonwealth parliament", but argued that such a doctrine should not be taken without limitation, and that the degree of interference should be considered.