Viscount Maugham.:-

This appeal by special leave is presented by the Attorney-General of Alberta against the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada dated 2nd December 1941, which answered certain questions concerning the constitutional validity of the Debt Adjustment Act, 1937, of the Province of Alberta as amended by five later Acts. These questions had been referred to the Supreme Court for hearing and consideration pursuant to S. 55, Supreme Court Act (Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927, chapter 35) by the Governor General in Council by an order made on 19th May 1941. The Supreme Court decided that the Act in question is ultra vires of the Legislature of Alberta. The Attorney-General for Saskatchewan as a respondent and the Attorneys-General for Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick as intervenants supported the appeal. Distress of a very serious nature was rife in Alberta and the adjoining Prairie Provinces from at any rate the year 1920, and divers statutes were passed in those Provinces and in particular in Alberta directed to the relief of the inhabitants. In the view their Lordships have taken, it does not seem to be necessary to give even a summary of these statutes beginning