Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 61
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
the Northern Districts from New South Wales to be followed by the
Northern Colony being declared a place to which convicts might be
sent.
Despatch No. 74 of 4 May 1853: the Secretary of State
acknowledging receipt of the Governor's despatch, No. 209 of
29 November 1852, with its enclosed petition from resident
householders in the district lying northward of the thirtieth parallel
of South Latitude, agreed to at a public meeting held at Brisbane
on 17 August 1852, praying for separation.
Despatch No.74
In box [4/1339] there is one relevant Despatch - Duplicate
Despatch No. 108 of 1 August 1853: the Secretary of State
acknowledging receipt of Mr H Stuart Russell's letter of
28 January, on the subject of the separation of the Northern
Districts from New South Wales but particularly "on the boundary
proposed to be assigned to the Colony by the 48th Clause of the
Constitution Bill which was introduced into the Council by Mr
Wentworth in the session of 1852".
Despatch No.108
1854 Despatches
NRS 4512,
[4/1340]
Box [4/1340] contains one despatch relating to the separation of
Moreton Bay (the Northern Districts) Duplicate Despatch No. 8 of 14 January 1854: the Secretary of
State acknowledging receipt of the Governor's despatch, No. 114
of 6 September 1854, and its enclosed letter from four members
of the Legislative Council urging the immediate separation of the
Northern Districts from the Colony of New South Wales.
Grievances of the Colony
Council remonstrates
Despatch No.8
The Legislative
We the Legislative Council of New South Wales, in Council assembled, feel it to be a duty which we
owe to ourselves, to our constituents, and to posterity, before we give place to the New
Legislature established by the 13 and 14 Vict. Cap 59 to record our deep disappointment and
dissatisfaction at the Constitution conferred by that Act on this Colony. After the reiterated
Reports, Resolutions, Addresses, and Petitions which have proceeded from us during the whole
course of our Legislative career against the Schedules appended to the 5 and 6 Vict. Cap 76 and
the appropriations of our Ordinary Revenue under the sole authority of Parliament - against the
administration of our Waste Lands and our Territorial Revenue hence arising - against the
withholding of the Customs Department from our control - against the dispensation of the
patronage of the Colony at the dictation of the Minister for the Colonies - and against the veto
reserved and exercised by the same Minister in the name of the Crown, in matters of Local
Legislation - we feel that we had a right to expect these undoubted grievances would have been
redressed by the 13 and 14 Vict. cap. 59; or that the power to redress them would have been
conferred on the constituent bodies thereby created with the avowed intention of establishing an
authority more competent than Parliament itself to frame suitable constitutions for the whole
group of the Australian Colonies. These our reasonable expectations have been utterly frustrated.
part of the Declaration and Remonstrance from the outgoing Legislative Council against the Act
13 & 14 Vic c.59, CGS 905, LC 237 in [4/3025]
Because of dissatisfaction with the new Constitution Act of 1850, the Imperial Act 13 &
14 Vic c.59, the Legislative Council established by 5 & 6 Vic c.76 appointed a Select
Committee on 8 April 1851 to prepare a declaration and remonstrance. The Select
Committee reported on the New Constitution on 29 April, and its recommended
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State Records Authority of New South Wales
