No. 8. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY to (No. 9.) SIR, Downing Street, July 3, 1854. AMONG the subjects demanding immediate attention on my receiving the Seals of this Department, one of the most important was the consideration of the Acts passed by the Legislatures of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, for altering their constitutions, and for granting a Civil List to Her Majesty. 2. It would have been very satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government to have been enabled to bring these Acts under the consideration of Parliament during the present Session, and to have proposed, without delay, the measures necessary for fulfilling the conditional pledge given by Sir John Pakington in his Despatch, of 15th December 1852, and repeated by the Duke of Newcastle in his Despatch of 18th January 1853,† respecting the future administration of the waste lands of these colonies, and the appropriation of the funds arising from their sale. * NEW SOUTH No. 8. 3. But the course of circumstances has rendered this impossible. Your Despatch, No. 165, of the 29th December last, transmitting the New South Page 27. Wales Act, reached this country only on the 19th April, when the Session of Parliament was already far advanced, and although the two Acts passed for similar purposes by the Legislature of South Australia had arrived two months earlier, the Act from Victoria was not received until the 31st May. 4. It will be obvious, that laws framed on such subjects by colonies similarly circumstanced, and in pursuance of similar proposals from the Home Government, could not, with advantage, be considered separately; still less could the necessary Parliamentary measures respecting them be separately introduced. 5. The novelty and importance of some of the provisions of these Acts to which no effect can be given without Parliamentary enactment, require that the decision of Her Majesty's Government as to the advice which it will be their duty to tender to Her Majesty with regard to them, should be made after full and serious deliberation. Time will also be requisite for the preparation of any Bills to be submitted to Parliament respecting them, and for the consideration by Parliament of such Bills after their introduction. 6. This object can only be attained by postponing any such measures to the next Session. The interval between the close of the present Session, now drawing towards its termination, and the commencement of another, will afford to Her Majesty's advisers, the necessary leisure for the consideration which is due to Acts involving questions of such magnitude, and so deeply concerning the future welfare and good government of these valuable and important provinces of the British empire. I have, &c. (Signed) G. GREY. No. 9. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY to (No. 17.) SIR, Governor Sir C. A. FitzRoy, &c. * Page 44 † Page 48 I have, &c. Of Papers on "Anstralian Constitution" presented to both Houses of Parliament, * Page 57. No. 10. * Page 56. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY to (No. 25.) SIR, I have, &c. (Signed) G. GREY. VICTORIA. Despatches from Lieut.-Governor Latrobe. No. 1. 16 Vict. No. 29. No. 1. EXTRACT of a DESPATCH from Lieut.-Governor LATROBE to the Duke of NEWCASTLE, dated Melbourne, March 2, 1853, (No. 43.) (Received 5th July 1853.) "THE Committee business of the Legislative Council having of late become, from its extent and variety, incapable of being performed by the limited number of members originally constituting the Council, it has become necessary to exercise the powers intrusted to the Governor and Legislative Council by the Constitutional Act, and a measure has been adopted, leaving untouched in other particulars the existing Electoral Law, which has simply provided for an increase in the number of members of the Council. Due care has been taken that the proportion of increase allotted to the several electoral bodies should as nearly as possible correspond with those by which the balance of the colonial constitution has hitherto been regulated. Encl. in No. 1. Preamble. Number of Members increased. Elective Members how to be chosen. Enclosure in No. 1. An Act to alter the "Victoria Electoral Act of 1851," and to increase the Number of Members of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Victoria. WHEREAS by an Act of the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, passed in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, intituled "An Act for the better government of Her Majesty's Australian Colonies," it was, amongst other things, enacted, that there should be within and for the colony of Victoria a separate Legislative Council, to consist of such number of members as should be determined by the Governor and Council of New South Wales in such manner as therein directed; and it was thereby further enacted, that it should be lawful for the Governor and Council of the said colony of Victoria, after the establishment of a Legislative Council under the said Act, from time to time, by any Act or Acts, to alter and appoint the number of members of the said Council to be chosen by the electoral districts to be established under the said Act, and to increase the whole number of members of the said Council: And whereas by an Act of the Governor and Legislative Council of the colony of New South Wales, passed in the fourteenth year of Her said Majesty's reign, being the "Victoria Electoral Act of 1851," it was amongst other things enacted, that the Legislative Council of the said colony of Victoria should consist of thirty members, ten of whom should be appointed by Her Majesty, according to the provisions of the said recited Act of the Imperial Parliament, and twenty of whom should from time to time be elected by the inhabitants of the said colony in the manner therein-after mentioned; and it was also enacted, that the said colony of Victoria should be divided into electoral districts, for the purpose of returning members to serve in the said Legislative Council in manner therein mentioned: And whereas it is deemed expedient to alter the "Victoria Electoral Act of 1851," and to increase the whole number of members of the Legislative Council of the colony of Victoria in manner herein mentioned: Be it therefore enacted, by his Excellency the Lieutenant Governor of the said colony of Victoria, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows: 1. The whole number of members of the said Legislative Council of the said colony of Victoria shall be increased by the additional number of twenty-four members, and the said Council shall thenceforth consist of the said thirty members and the said twenty-four additional members, amounting in all to fifty-four members, eight of which additional members shall be appointed by Her Majesty, according to the provisions of the said Act of the Imperial Parliament, and sixteen of which additional members shall be elected as hereinafter mentioned. 2. The said sixteen additional elective members shall be chosen and returned according to the provisions of "The Victoria Electoral Act of 1851," by such of the said electoral districts established by that Act as are set forth in the Schedule hereunto annexed, and each of the electoral districts shall return so many members to serve in the said Legislative Council as are set forth in the said Schedule. VICTORIA. 3. It shall be lawful for the Governor of the said colony to issue the proper writs for the Governor may issue election of the said additional elective members in the same manner as he is now authorized Writs. and empowered by "The Victoria Electoral Act of 1851" to do, in case of a general election. 4. Nothing in this Act contained shall be taken to alter or repeal any part of "The Provisions of "The Victoria Electorial Act of 1851," save in so far as it relates to the number of members of Victoria Electoral Act of 1851" to apply to the said Legislative Council, but the same, save as aforesaid, shall be of full force and effect, additional Members. as well with reference to existing members as with reference to such members as are hereby added to the said Legislative Council, and all the enactments, clauses, penalties, and pro visions of the said Act of the Imperial Parliament and of "The Victoria Electoral Act of 1851," shall be deemed and are hereby declared to extend and to apply to the said Council hereby increased, and all the proceedings thereof and connected therewith, and to the nomination, appointment, resignation, writs of election, proceedings at election, disputed returns, and election petitions of, for, and against the aforesaid additional members, in such and the same manner and as fully and amply as to the said Council previous to its being so increased as aforesaid, and to the nomination, appointments, resignation, writs of election, proceedings at election, disputed returns, election petitions of, for, and against the several members thereof. 5. Nothing in this Act contained shall be taken to imply the dissolution of the now Present Council not existing Legislative Council of the said colony of Victoria, or to abridge, extend, or inter- affected. fere with the period of the lawful determination thereof. 6. This Act shall commence and take effect from and after the thirty-first day of March Commencement of 1853. Act. |
