NEW

SOUTH WALES.

plaining of some of the provisions of the Gold Act passed during the last session, and of the regulations founded thereon, and praying that the necessary alterations may be made therein for obviating the objections to these measures, which the petitioners have thus represented, and which I believe have also been entertained by a considerable portion of the community. It is my intention therefore, immediately to lay before you a bill to amend this act in such manner as I hope will remove any just grounds of dissatisfaction. It will be my duty to lay before you a despatch from the Right Honourable the Secretary of State, recommending various alterations in the law for preventing the desertion of seamen from merchant ships, founded upon certain Acts passed by the Legislature of Canada for a similar purpose, and which have been found in those provinces highly useful in effecting the object in view. A bill embodying the provisions of the acts in question, and for further improving the law relating to merchant seamen, will accordingly be laid before you; and as this is a subject of vital importance to the commerce of the colony, as well as to the interests more immediately concerned, I beg to recommend that it may receive your early attention.

In consequence of the large number of persons passing to and from the Golds Fields of Victoria, and the instances of outrage and robbery which have occurred, both on the line of the great southern road and in the country situated upon the boundaries of that colony, I have found it necessary to increase the police establishments for which provision was made in the estimates for those districts laid before you during the last session. Patrol stations have been established through the whole of the line of road to Albury, and detachments of native police have been ordered to be organized at convenient situations in the border districts. I rely on obtaining your sanction to these arrangements, and I am induced to believe from recent occurrences that a still greater augmentation of the police force of those districts will be required.

Encl. 2. in No. 1.

Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
EXTRACT, &c.

To his Excellency Sir CHARLES AUGUSTUS FITZROY, Knight Companion of the Royal
Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Governor General of all Her Majesty's Australian
Possessions, and Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of the Territory of New
South Wales and its Dependencies, and Vice Admiral of the same, &c., &c., &c.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,-

WE, Her Majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, the Members of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, in Council assembled, desire to express to your Excellency our affection and loyalty to the person and government of our most gracious Sovereign, and to offer our respectful thanks for your Excellency's speech to this Council, and for your ready compliance with the request for an early session, which was conveyed to your Excellency by the address of this Council of the 21st of December last. We join with your Excellency in the expression of our gratitude to Providence for the generally prosperous condition of all classes throughout the colony, and we concur with your Excellency in believing that at no former period of its existence has the material condition of its inhabitants been in a more satisfactory and progressive state.

That the increased cost of all the necessaries of life, consequent upon the gold discovery is severely felt by those servants of the Crown, whose incomes, fixed with reference to former prices, have proved inadequate to their proper position and reasonable support, we readily admit, and we shall be prepared to consider any proposition that may be made by your Excellency with the view of establishing a rate of remuneration more in accordance with the altered condition of the colony.

We agree most cordially with the sentiments expressed by your Excellency, that whilst congratulating ourselves on the unparalleled prosperity of the colony, it is incumbent on the Legislature sedulously to provide means for improving the social and moral condition of the community, in a corresponding degree. For we feel persuaded that the future welfare of this country, and the proper exercise of its constitutional freedom, will be most effectually secured by sound and extended education, under the influence of which every citizen becomes best qualified to contribute to the social and political advancement of the society of which he is a member.

The Bill for amending the Gold Act, which your Excellency has intimated your intention to bring before us, will receive our best attention. Having due regard to any well grounded objections that may be found to exist with respect to the present gold regulations, we shall, nevertheless, enter upon the consideration of the bill about to be brought before us, with the desire to frame a measure by which the reciprocal rights of the public on the one hand, and the gold-seeker on the other, may be asserted and maintained.

Our early attention shall also be given to the consideration of the measure which your Excellency proposes to submit to us, with the view of amending the law relating to

merchant seamen. We acknowledge the subject to be of great importance as affecting the interests of commerce.

*

The augmentation of the police force on the southern line of road, and on the borders of the colony, appear to have been rendered necessary by the causes adverted to by your Excellency; and on considering the estimates of expenditure we shall not be unmindful of the importance of preserving in a state of efficiency the necessary means for protecting life and property.

Legislative Council Chamber,

Sydney, 10th May 1853.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

No. 2.

COPY of a DESPATCH from Governor-General Sir C. A. FITZROY to

(No. 60.)

MY LORD DUKE,

the Duke of NEWCASTLE.

Government House, Sydney, May 20, 1853.
(Received August 20, 1853.)

(Answered No. 116, September 10, 1853, p. 59.)

I HAVE the honour to enclose the following returns for the quarter ended on 31st March, 1853:

1st. Return showing the quantity and value of gold exported, gold brought to Sydney, and the number of licenses granted to dig, search for and remove gold, to erect temporary buildings, tents, &c., and to carry on business in any way at the Gold Fields, and the amount received for the

same.

2nd. Return of the quantity and value of gold exported from the colony of New South Wales during the quarter.

2. The total amount brought to Sydney by the Government escort and the post-office mails was

For the quarter ended 31st December 1852

Oz. dwts. grs. 56,954 13 14

47,184 15 4

9,769 22 10

For the last quarter

Showing a decrease of

The licenses to dig, &c. amounted

£ S. d.

No. 2.

3. The salary of the Chief Commissioner for the Gold Fields having been refused by the Legislative Council last session, that office ceased on the 31st December last.

4. In my Despatch No. 15,* dated 5th February last, I forwarded "an Act 16 Vict. No. 43. (passed by the Legislature of this colony) for regulating the management of the Gold Fields, and for raising a revenue therefrom, and for the preservation of order therein;" and I also enclosed a copy of the Regulations which I had caused to be promulgated in consequence thereof. The Act came into operation on the 1st February last, previous to which the gold diggers on the Turon

* Page 18 of Australian Gold Papers, presented to Parliament by Her Majesty's Command, 16th August 1853.

NEW

threatened to resist by force any attempt which the Government might make to SOUTH WALES. enforce it when the time arrived; and the Gold Commissioner for the Western District reported that an armed body of four hundred men had been organized for this purpose. The timely notice thus given enabled me to take such measures, by despatching half a company of the 11th Regiment to Bathurst, and by strengthening the Police Force at Sofala, as convinced the leaders of this movement that resistance would be useless. The Regulations were, therefore, put in force without any actual disturbance or breach of the peace. The prudence, firmness, and temper displayed by Mr. Commissioner Green and the Assistant Commissioners, Messrs. Zouche, Johnson, and MacLean, on this occasion, greatly contributed to this result; and I consider all these gentlemen highly deserving of the approbation of the Government.

1 Jan. 1853.

1 April 1853. 17 Dec. 1852,

and 10 April 1853.

28 Dec. 1852,

and 14 Feb. 1853.

5. It was my obvious duty in the first instance to vindicate the law; but that having been done, it was impossible to deny that some of the clauses in the Act, in accordance with which the regulations had been framed, were of a more stringent character than the original regulations of the Executive Government, and that they might not unjustly be considered harsh, if not oppressive.

6. I have therefore thought it proper to fulfil the intention I expressed to the Legislative Council in my opening speech on the 10th instant, and I have accordingly submitted to that body a bill to amend the Act passed in the last session with respect to the clauses which were felt to be objectionable, and which, if agreed to by the Council, I shall have the honour of transmitting and reporting on to your Grace in due course.

7. I enclose copies of two letters from the Geological Surveyor; of two letters from Mr. Commissioner Hargraves; and of two reports from the Rev. W. B. Clarke, relating to the Gold Fields.

I have, &c.

(Signed) CHARLES A. FITZROY.

His Grace the Duke of Newcastle,
&c.

&c.

&c

Enclosure 1 in No. 2.

213,497

0 11 693,865 6 6

Total

44,820 15 4 2,364 0 0 47,184 15 4 8,521

850

10

10

• 3 boxes of foreign gold (weight not stated in Return), furnished by the Collector of Customs.

Enclosure 3 in No. 2.

16 VICTORIA, 1853.

A BILL TO AMEND AN ACT FOR REGULATING THE MANAGEMENT OF THE GOLD FIELDS. WHEREAS an Act was passed in the last Session of Council for regulating the management of the Gold Fields of New South Wales: And whereas it is expedient to amend the same in manner herein-after mentioned: Be it therefore enacted, by His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:

I. The eighth section of the said recited Act, and so much of the second, fifth, and sixth sections thereof, as directly or impliedly restrict the provisions respectively therein contained to British subjects only, shall be and the same are hereby repealed; and from and after the passing hereof, until further order, all subjects and citizens of Foreign States shall have the like privileges of working the Gold Mines and Gold Fields of the colony, and of employing themselves thereon, as now are or hereafter may be enjoyed by British subjects.

II. No license shall be required to be held in respect of residence only upon a Gold Field by any clergyman or other recognised minister of religion, or any commissioner for the Gold Fields, or justice of the peace, or any clerk, trooper, constable, or other person employed exclusively in the Government service, or any schoolmaster, or the wives and families of any such persons respectively, or the domestic or other servants of such last mentioned persons, or of any persons following any trade, calling, or occupation` other than that of Gold Mining, or any person to whom the Resident Commissioner shall think fit to grant a temporary exemption on account of sickness or accident: Provided that in the case of such servants, their names, and the names of their employers for the time being, shall upon every change of service be furnished to the Gold Commissioner resident within their respective districts, who shall register such names accordingly, and shall deliver to each of such servants a registration ticket or certificate of such registration: And provided also, that such servants shall be bound to produce their respective registration tickets immediately on demand made by any such commissioner or any of his assistants, and shall on default in such production be liable to be apprehended and brought before a justice of the peace, and shall be dealt with as an unlicensed person unless and until he shall prove himself to the satisfaction of such justice to be such domestic or other servant, and to be duly registered as such.

III. The twelfth section of the said recited Act is hereby repealed: Provided nevertheless, that upon any person holding a license or lease under the said Act being convicted in the due and ordinary course of law of having absconded from his hired service or apprenticeship, such license or lease shall by force of such conviction be deemed to be forfeited and cancelled.

IV. The proviso to the twenty-third section of the said Act is hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof, be it enacted, That any duly licensed person or registered servant who shall have been apprehended or charged as an unlicensed person by reason of the nonproduction by him of his license or registration ticket on demand, shall on proof of his being duly licensed or registered as aforesaid, as the case may be, be discharged on payment only of such costs, if any, as the Justice granting such discharge shall deem it reasonable to award.

V. The ninth section of the said Act is hereby repealed.

VI. One Justice of the Peace shall be competent to convict and award penalties under the seventeenth section of the said Act.