legislature of New South Wales shall determine.1 One-third of these members are to be nominated by the Crown, the other two-thirds to be elected by the inhabitants.2 Moreover, the legislature of New South Wales is to divide the colony of Victoria into electoral districts, and to make all necessary provisions for the conduct of elections.3 The writs for the first elections in Victoria are to be issued (in default of special nomination by the Crown) by the Governor of New South Wales.1 The electoral franchises for the Victorian Legislative Council are to be four in number 1. Ownership of a freehold within the electoral district of the clear value of £100. 2. Householding resident occupation of dwelling-house, value £10 per annum, within the electoral district. 3. Holding of a pasturing licence within the electoral district. 4. Ownership of a leasehold estate in possession, with three years to run, of the value of £10 per annum, within the electoral district. But these franchises are only available for male natural born or naturalised subjects of Her Majesty and denizens of New South Wales, of the age of 21 years, and the qualification under the first two must have existed for six months prior to the registration or issue of writs. The disqualifications for voting are 1. An existing conviction for treason, felony, or infamous offence in any part of the British dominions. 2. Non-payment of rates and taxes due in respect of the qualifying interest more than three months before election or registration.5 The legislature of the new colony is to have full power, when constituted, to make any alterations in the mode of election and distribution, and even to increase the number of members of the Legislative Council, the due proportion of nominee and elected members being maintained. But until such alteration, the existing provisions of the 5 & 6 Vic. c. 76, and the 7 & 8 Vic. c. 72, are to be in force. Moreover, by a later section, the legislature is empowered to make radical changes in the constitution, by the creation of a second chamber, CHAP. XV POWERS OF THE NEW COUNCIL 143 and the like; but measures of this class must be specially reserved for the royal assent.1 The normal functions of the new legislatures created by the statute are defined by the very wide permission "to make Laws for the Peace, Welfare, and good Government of the said Colonies respectively, and, with the Deductions and subject to the Provisions herein contained, by such Laws to appropriate to the Public Service within the said Colonies respectively the whole of Her Majesty's Revenue within such Colonies arising from Taxes, Duties, Rates, and Imposts levied on Her Majesty's Subjects within such Colonies." 2 Thus the new legislature of Victoria may be said to have started with a general power of legislation, and a special power of appropriation of the general revenue. The specific restrictions upon these powers are as follow 1. No law is to be "repugnant to the Law of England.” 2. No law is to "interfere in any manner with the Sale or other appropriation of the Lands belonging to the Crown within any of the said Colonies, or with the Revenue thence arising." 3. No law is to appropriate to the public service any sum of money unless the object has been specifically recommended to the Council by the Governor on Her Majesty's behalf. 4. No law is to authorise the issue of public monies except in pursuance of warrants under the hand of the Governor, directed to the Treasurer.3 The statement of the three last restrictions brings us naturally to the consideration of the revenue clauses of the new statute. We have just seen that the Crown expressly retains control of the Land revenue. But in other respects the powers of the colonial legislature are very wide. It may impose any customs duties it may think fit, upon British as well as foreign goods, save only that it must not impose differential rates, levy duties upon supplies imported for land or naval forces, nor infringe the provisions of any treaty existing between the Crown and a foreign power. With regard to the Civil List also, its powers are greatly enlarged. For Victoria the legislature is required at first to vote an annual grant of £20,000 for the expenses of government and public worship." 1 § 32. The provisions of 5 & 6 Vic. c. 76 and the 7 & 8 Vic. c. 74 as to bills reserved for the royal assent are continued by § 33. 2 § 14. 4 § 27. 5 § 31. 6 § 17, Sched. (B). 3 Ibid. But the salaries of the judges may be altered by the legislature unreservedly (vested interests excepted), as well as those of the political officials, while the Governor must account to the Council for the details of expenditure, and, in varying the distribution of the sum granted, must not increase the total amount payable, nor contravene any provision made by the legislature for any permanent appropriation.2 The Governor must also, at the beginning of every session, lay before the Council the estimates for the Government service during the ensuing year.3 On the other hand, bills altering the salary of the Governor, or the amount distributable for the maintenance of public worship, must be specially reserved.* With regard to the administration of justice, it is provided 5 that Her Majesty may by letters-patent create a court, to be called "The Supreme Court of the Colony of Victoria," to be holden by one or more judges, with the powers of the Supreme Court of New South Wales under the 9 Geo. IV. c. 83. From the date of the constitution of such court, the powers of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, so far as Victoria is concerned, are to be vested in it; but, until its constitution, the existing arrangements are to remain in force. colonial legislature is also expressly empowered to make further provisions for the administration of justice. The laws now operating by virtue of any authority in the territories comprised in the new colony of Victoria are to continue to be binding therein until altered by the proper authority, except that any powers vested in the Governor of New South Wales are to be deemed transferred to the Governor of Victoria.s The The statute deals also with the question of local government, but that portion of it will be discussed in a subsequent chapter. With those sections of the statute which refer exclusively to other colonies, we have nothing specially to do. We may note, however, that they contemplate the establishment in Van Diemen's Land and South Australia of Legislative Councils similar to those provided for New South Wales and Victoria, and, upon certain conditions, a similar establishment in Western Australia. Also it is worth remembering that the powers given CHAP. XV INTEREST IN PARLIAMENT 145 to the Crown by the Act of 18421 to separate from New South Wales any portion of territory north of the twenty-sixth degree of south latitude, under which power the abortive colony of North Australia had been founded,2 were renewed and extended by the statute of 1850. Her Majesty is empowered 3 from time to time upon the petition of inhabitant householders of territory north of the thirtieth degree of south latitude to detach such territory from the colony of New South Wales, and to erect it into a separate colony or colonies, or annex it to any colonies to be established under the powers of the Act of 1842, and such new colonies are empowered to adopt the form of constitution contemplated by the statute of 1850.4 But there is one section of the latter enactment which touches Victoria specially. This section, the thirtieth, empowers Her Majesty, upon the petition of the Legislative Councils of New South Wales and Victoria, or one of them (with notice to the other), to alter, by order in Council, the boundaries laid down by the statute, and to vest territory in accordance with the alteration. If the changes of 1842 failed to excite attention in the mother country, the same complaint cannot be made of the attitude of the English statesmen of 1850. In spite of the Pacifico splutter and the vagaries of Lord Palmerston, in spite of the Irish distress and the formation of the Tenant League, in spite of Papal "aggression" and Jewish disabilities, Parliament found time to discuss with care and animation the Bill for the Government of the Australian Colonies. Lord John Russell, the premier of 1850, was one of the earliest English statesmen to recognise the importance of Australia. He took an active part in carrying the measure, and the great names of the day, Grey, Hume, and Roebuck, as well as the men of the future, Gladstone and Disraeli, also interested themselves in the matter. There was a formal "protest" upon it in the 1 5 & 6 Vic. c. 2 Ante, p. 125. (ed. 1857). 76, §§ 51 and 52. The colony will be found delineated in Black's General Atlas 3 13 & 14 Vic. c. 59, § 34. 4 This section obviously contemplated the separation of the Moreton Bay District, much of which lay between the twenty-sixth and thirtieth degrees of latitude. But when Queensland was actually made a separate colony, it was constituted under the powers of the 18 & 19 Vic. c. 54 (cf. 24 & 25 Vic. c. 44, preamble). L House of Lords, and in many of the divisions the numbers were large and evenly divided. The measure seems to have been first introduced by Mr. Under-Secretary Hawes, in the House of Commons, on the 4th June 1849.1 In asking leave to bring in the bill, Mr. Hawes announced that it had three great objects; the separation of Port Phillip from New South Wales, the establishment in each of the other Australian colonies of a constitution similar to that then in force in New South Wales, and the creation of a federal union amongst the colonies for general purposes. As minor objects, it was desired to give the colonies power to initiate a change to two-chambered constitutions, to establish an uniform tariff, and to introduce an amended scheme of local government. Mr. Gladstone, as one of the leaders of the Tory Opposition (he had been in office under Sir Robert Peel three years before), professed a general approval of the measure, but strongly recommended an extension of the existing franchise, and an attempt at two-chamber constitutions (especially in view of a federal union), and strongly deprecated any attempt to fix a general tariff, either by the Imperial Parliament or a General Assembly. After a few more observations, including a speech from Lord John Russell leaning decidedly against the two-chamber principle, leave was given to introduce the bill, which was read a first time on the 11th June, but did not get any further in the session. A similar fate befell another bill introduced on the 26th June.5 But early in the session of 1850 a new bill was introduced by the premier. In a long and interesting speech, Lord John Russell reviewed the history of the Colonial Empire, and explained the reasons which had led the Government to adopt its present policy. He admitted that the new bill differed from its predecessor in one important matter, in that it left to the colonists themselves the fixing of their own customs dues. The eager zeal of the new British convert was not to impose free trade upon the unwilling colonists. That, I say, must in future be a cardinal point in our policy."7 At the same 2 Ibid. p. 1128. 5 Ibid. cvi. p. 922. 6 Sir Robert Peel had practically given the death blow to protection in England by carrying, in 1846, his bill to abolish the corn duties. 7 Hansard, vol. cviii. p. 565. |