Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 131
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
Another inclusion is a copy of a double-sided Parliamentary paper
entitled Separation of Northern Districts, ordered to be printed
28 October 1856, which essentially reproduces Despatch No.90 of
21 July 1856 from the Secretary of State.
(1.) That this Council cordially concurs in and adopts the following
Resolutions, agreed to by the Legislative Assembly on the 5th day of
November instant, namely: —
(1.) That this House has learned with regret, that it is the intention of
the Imperial Government to fix the southern boundary of the proposed
new Colony of Moreton Bay at a line south of the 30th parallel of
south latitude.'
(2.) That as the interests of the various Districts proposed to be
included in the new Colony are not identical, this House is of opinion
that, in defining the future boundary line of the Colony of Moreton Bay
it is the duty of the Imperial Government to consult the wishes of the
several Districts proposed to be included in that Colony.
(3.) That while this House does not feel called upon to dispute the
propriety of the Imperial Government erecting the Districts of Moreton
Bay and Darling Downs into a separate Colony, if in accordance with
the expressed wish of the majority of the Inhabitants thereof, it
submits that, on the same principle, it will be unjust to the inhabitants
of New England and the Clarence River to include those Districts in
such Colony, if they are averse to be so included.
(4.) That in the opinion of this House the interest and commercial
connexion of New England and the Clarence River are now, and will
continue to be, so completely identified with the Colony of New South
Wales, and distinct from those of the Districts of Moreton Bay and
Darling Downs, that, if the question whether the first mentioned
Districts shall be included in the New Colony be referred to the
inhabitants of those Districts, a very large majority will be found to be
opposed to their being so included; and, in support of such opinion,
this House refers to the Petition, signed by 1551 Inhabitants of New
England and Clarence River, praying for the establishment of an Assize
Court at Armidale, in which Petition they assert that 'they do not
desire to be included in any section of the Northern Districts which
may be separated from the present Colony of New South Wales.'
(2.) That this Council desires, moreover, to submit to Her Majesty's
Government, that no power is vested in Her Majesty, under any
circumstances, to detach from this Colony any portion of the Territory
lying south of the 30th degree of south latitude; or to detach any of the
Territories lying between the 26th and 30th degrees of such latitude,
except upon the Petition of the Inhabitant Householders of each District or
Territory proposed to be detached; and that no such Petition, signed, or
purporting to be signed, by a majority of the Inhabitant Householders of
the New England or of the Clarence River Districts, appears to have been
presented to Her Majesty.
(3.) That this Council submits, for these reasons, that the final settlement
of the Southern Boundary line of the new Colony should be deferred by
the Imperial Government, until the wishes of the Inhabitants of the
Districts of New England and Clarence River shall have been legally
expressed on the subject.
State Records Authority of New South Wales
129
