Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 53
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
the 30th parallel of latitude) to be wholly included in the proposed separation of the
Northern Districts, that news of the Australian Colonies Government Act had spread
widely through the Colony of New South Wales before the Act was received. The
December 1850 petition states that "your Petitioners have learned with much
satisfaction, from copies of the Bill for the future government of the Australian Colonies,
and from the published speeches of Members of your Majesty's Government, that power
is reserved to your Majesty in Council, upon Petition of the resident Householders in
these Districts, to sever the same from New South Wales, and to erect them into a
separate Colony".
The early petitions for separation did not receive any support from the New South Wales
Government. In 1851 the Governor advised the Secretary of State that, after
deliberation, both he and the Executive Council were in agreement that it would be
neither expedient nor advantageous to the Northern Districts of the Colony to erect them
into a separate colony, an opinion to which the Secretary of State concurred in his
responding despatch.
While Moreton Bay was raised to a Residency in 1853, and the Police Magistrate (Captain
Wickham) appointed the first Government Resident, opposition to its separation from
New South Wales continued.
In October 1855, responding to a direction from the Secretary of State to give his
opinion as to the expediency of separating the Moreton Bay District from New South
Wales and establishing therein a separate Government, the Governor wrote:
I have looked over the former correspondence with relation to the proposed scheme of
separation, by which it would appear, that the expediency of such a step was first
advocated by the inhabitants of the Northern Districts, principally with the view of
inducing the Government to send a supply of convict labor to that part of the Colony.
It is true that this was objected to by a portion of the population, but still it formed
the main feature in most of the Petitions; and I am, therefore, I think, justified in
expressing my belief that the large squatters were the persons whose interests were
most consulted in the matter. In the later Petitions, the question of the continuance of
transportation has been omitted; the policy of the Home Government having been too
clearly explained as regards it, to allow of any hope that convicts would be sent to
Moreton Bay, even were it made a separate Colony; but the persons who petition are
the same; with the addition, perhaps, of the trading population of the towns of
Brisbane and Ipswich. To these, the prospect of a large local expenditure is probably
the inducement which has caused them to apply for separation from New South
Wales.
The Governor concluded that, having looked at the current condition of the districts to
the north of the parallel of 300 of latitude, the separation of the District of Moreton Bay
from New South Wales at present would be both inexpedient and unwise.15
15
52
see Denison to Russell, Despatch No.168 of 18 October 1855, in Parliamentary papers with
LC56/9 in [4/3348], CGS 905
State Records Authority of New South Wales
