Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 66
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
Despatch No. 13 of 18 January 1853: the Secretary of State
acknowledging receipt of the Governor's despatch, No. 144 of 31
August 1852, in which the Governor reported on the Votes of the
Legislative Council on two important questions. The Duke of
Newcastle expresses concurrence with the views of Her Majesty's
late Government on the future administration of the affairs of the
Colony.
Despatch No.13
You inform me that a Committee of the Council is engaged in
the preparation of a Scheme for the Amendment of its
Constitution. As such a measure is impending, it is only
necessary for me now to inform you that as soon as it has
passed the Legislature of the Province and received the
Approval of Her Majesty the disposition of the Waste Lands, and
the appropriation of the Fund arising out of their sale and
management will be placed without reserve under the
supervision and controul of the Legislative Authority in the
Colony.
Towards a New Constitution
Among its many other provisions, the Imperial Act 13 & 14 Vic c.59, the Australian
Colonies Government Act of 1850, empowered the New South Wales legislature to
amend its own constitution, including replacing the existing Legislative Council with a
Council and a House of Representatives, or other separate Houses "to consist
respectively of such Members to be appointed or elected respectively by such Persons
and in such Manner as by such Act or Acts shall be determined".
However, the Act did not satisfy growing demands for self-government, as it did not
sufficiently provide for local control of revenue and failed to give the Legislative Council
full powers. Accordingly, before its dissolution in May 1851 the Legislative Council
established by 5 & 6 Vic c.76 expressed their grievances in a Declaration and
Remonstrance, which was affirmed by the successor Council in December 1851 in a
petition to the Queen. In this petition the Council also offered, on surrender to the
colonial legislature of the entire management of all colonial revenue and on
establishment of a constitution similar in outline to that of Canada, to assume the whole
cost of Colonial Government.
In his Despatch of 15 December 1852 which was received in the Colony in April 1853,
the Secretary of State Sir John Pakington addressed the grievances raised in the
December 1851 petition of the Legislative Council in some detail. He advised that Her
Majesty's Government concurred with the sentiment of the Council that a reform of the
Constitution of the legislature was expedient and that once constitutional reform had
taken place, administration of the waste lands would be transferred to the New South
Wales legislature. He confirmed that "Ample powers for the purpose of effecting this
alteration appear to be entrusted to the existing Legislature by the Constitutional Act of
1850, subject to the confirmation by the Crown of any Act passed for the purpose", and
further advised that "it is the wish of Her Majesty's Government that the Council should
establish the new Legislature on the bases of an Elective Assembly and a Legislative
Council to be nominated by the Crown".
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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