Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 67
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
In the meantime, the Legislative Council had appointed a Select Committee to draft a
new Constitution on 16 June 1852. The Committee presented its report together with
three draft bills on 17 September 1852. The greatest difficulty experienced by the
Committee was devising a scheme for constituting the Legislative Council (as the upper
house of the bicameral legislature was to be called). It was on the question of the upper
house that opinion the Colony was divided, the other provisions of the draft constitution
being generally accepted.16
The bills drafted by the 1852 Select Committee were abandoned and a new Select
Committee, consisting of ten members, appointed on 20 May 1853 to prepare a
Constitution for the Colony. The Despatches from Sir John Pakington and the Duke of
Newcastle relating to such Constitution were to be referred to this Committee.'' The
Report of the Committee was brought up by William Charles Wentworth as Chairman on
28 July 1853 together with the two accompanying Bills.18
The draft constitution prepared by the 1853 Committee was different to that framed in
1852 as the Committee felt obliged to adopt a constitution similar in its outline to that of
Canada. Particularly different were provisions relating to the composition of the
Legislative Council and in the elective franchise.
The Committee proposed an upper house with at least 20 members, nominated by the
Governor, and recommended the establishment of a hereditary order of colonial nobility,
from whom the members of the upper house would be chosen. The proposal that the
upper chamber should consist of members with hereditary claims of membership was a
major cause of dissent. Hostility to this proposal was so great that it was abandoned,
and in the final draft the upper house became a nominated chamber, firstly for a term of
five years and then for life.
The elective franchise proposals were less controversial: the Committee recommended
an extension of the franchise to those receiving a salary of £100 per annum, paying £40
per annum for board and lodging, or who paid £10 for lodging only.
The Constitution Bill was introduced into the Legislative Council on 9 August, had its
second reading on 2 September, and following petitions from inhabitants objecting to the
Bill, debates and amendments, was passed by the Council on 21 December 1853.
Edward Deas Thomson and William Charles Wentworth were deputed to proceed to
England in order to facilitate the acceptance of the measure by the Imperial Parliament.
The Governor reserved the Bill on 22 December 1853, and on 16 July 1855, Royal assent
was given to the Bill, as amended.
The Imperial Act 18 & 19 Vic c.54, An Act to enable Her Majesty to assent to a Bill, as
amended, of the Legislature of NSW, "to confer a Constitution on New South Wales, and
to grant a Civil List to Her Majesty", was transmitted to the Governor in a Despatch of
20 July 1855 which arrived in the Colony in late October. The enabling Act, the Imperial
Constitution Statute, 1855, and Schedule 1 of that Act (which is the reserved Bill, as
amended), the latter commonly referred to as the Constitution Act or the New South
Wales Constitution Act, took effect in New South Wales on 24 November 1855.
16
Melbourne, op cit, p.397
17
Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 20 May 1853, 1853 Volume 1, p.20
18
Ibid, 28 July 1853, p.127
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State Records Authority of New South Wales
