the officers of the crown did not care to have the spending of them, having admitted that it was "just and reasonable that the revenues should be applied wholly and exclusively for the benefit of the colony." But, when the land revenues rose to hundreds of thousands of pounds annually, the question assumed a different aspect in the eyes of a young but accomplished bureaucrat like Sir George Gipps.

Sir Richard Bourke, after receiving the despatches in question, believed that the Legislative Council had the complete control of the land revenue. He seems to have been always anxious to extend the legislative powers of the colonies.

Sir George Gipps commenced what may be called, to use a slang term of modern politics, his reactionary course of policy, by repudiating the assumed contract, in the extract from a despatch, dated November, 1838, which alone affords a complete key to the favour in which he was held at the Colonial Office, and the detestation in which he was held in the colony :

"It is asserted in the colony that the right to appropriate this revenue was conceded to the governor and council by a despatch, &c., and that this right was recognised by Sir Richard Bourke.

*

"Notwithstanding the strength of these expressions, I must say that I very much doubt whether, by the Treasury letter of the 24th September, 1834, it was intended to give up unreservedly, and for ever, the right to select the objects on which the crown revenue (viz., from colonial land) should be expended; and I therefore, whenever occasion required, maintained, during the last session of the council, that the crown has still power to do so-feeling that, if wrong in this opinion, I could easily set myself right with the council; but, if I committed an error the other way, I might involve myself in difficulties from which there would be no escape,"

And he proceeds with great ingenuity to "get up a case" to enable the Colonial Office at home to shear the colonists of the trifling powers recently conceded to them.

This was a very pretty quarrel to begin with, and the governor lost no opportunity of improving it,

Whether the contract existed or not, it is quite clear that the powers claimed and exercised by the governor and the colonial secretary, in the much-abused name of the sovereign, amounted to revolting despotism under a caricature of free discussion.

The colonists were expected to defray the cost of their own government, with all the addition of police and gaol expenses incident to a periodical inoculation of British-grown felonry, and, with the sham of

WILLIAM WENTWORTH.

117

a Legislative Council and financial discussions, all sources of revenue, except additional taxation, being removed from their control.

As to the crown or waste lands, the price, the management, the expenditure of the funds arising from them in emigration, were settled by English commissioners; the surplus was appropriated by the Crown. The custom-house tariff and the rules for levying it were settled and the officers appointed by the English custom-house.

As to the funds raised by local taxation, the Colonial Secretary, in the name of the crown, created offices, fixed fines, salaries, and appointed officers, without the slightest regard to the wants or wishes of the colonists.

The grievance with respect to the appropriation of the land revenues became more unbearable in consequence of the orders and acts of the home government in respect to the land question, which were in direct opposition to the feelings and interests of the colonists.

In 1842, a representative character was given to the Legislative Council, by introducing into it twenty-four elective members.

It was with this body, while the colony was in a state of insolvency, that Governor Gipps's battles commenced, and were carried on with an acerbity on both sides which did not breed a rebellion, because the materials in the shape of coercive powers had not been conceded to the governor.

The new council lost no time in investigating the grievances of the colony, and soon collected a most formidable list, although the most oppressed class of all, the small settlers, were entirely unrepresented.

The revenues, the price of crown lands, the assessments on the pastoral proprietors, the abuses in the exercise of crown patronage, successively attracted the attention of the opposition, vigorously led by William Wentworth, a gentleman of brilliant talents and great oratorical powers, whose influence was unfortunately impaired by a violent temper and want of taste, the necessary result of a provincial education among men vastly inferior in intellect, and long exclusion from a legitimate exercise of his powers.

Without the evidence extracted by these Legislative Councils of New South Wales it would be impossible to credit that a government at home professed to be formed on "reform" and "retrenchment" could perpetrate and maintain powers so oppressive and jobs so corrupt.

But jobbery and despotism seem incident to all corporate bodies which have the control of sea-divided territories. It was impossible to imagine anything worse than the administration of the Colonial Office

until the New Zealand Company, composed entirely of pure colonial reformers, was established, and showed in perfection what a colonizing Robert Macaire could do with a large capital, a directorate of credulous capitalists, and an array of still more credulous colonists.

The First Parliament of Australia.

The first Legislative Council, which contained twenty-four elected representatives, in addition to the nominees and official members, met for the first time, for the despatch of business, on Thursday, August 3, 1843, and was opened by Sir George Gipps, in the following speech, which it may be interesting to compare with those delivered by the respective governors of the three colonies, at the first opening of the assemblies with more extended powers, in 1851:—

"Gentlemen of the Legislative Council.

"The time has at length arrived which has, for many years, been anxiously looked forward to by us all; and I have this day the pleasure to meet, for the first time, the Legislative Council of New South Wales, enlarged as it has been under the statute recently passed by the Imperial Parliament for the government of the colony. I congratulate you very sincerely on the introduction of popular representation into our constitution, and I heartily welcome to this chamber the first representatives of the people.

"The period, gentlemen, at which you enter on your functions, is one of acknowledged difficulty, and it is therefore more grateful to me to have my own labours and responsibilities lightened by your co-operation and assistance.

"I shall most readily concur with you in any measures which may be calculated to develop the resources of the colony, by calling into action the energies of the people, taking care, however, that we proceed on sure principles, and not overlooking the great truths, that the enterprise of individuals is ever most active, when left as far as possible unshackled by legislative enactment, and that industry and economy are the only sure foundations of wealth. Great as undoubtedly are the embarrassments under which numbers, even of the most respectable, of our fellow-subjects in the colony are now labouring, it is consolatory to me to think, that grievous though they be to individuals, they are not of a nature permanently to injure us as a community; that, on the contrary, they may be looked on as forming one of those alterations in the progress of human events which occur in all countries, and perhaps most frequently in those whose general prosperity is the greatest.

"Nor should we, gentlemen, enter upon the labours of this session, without making our grateful acknowledgments to Almighty God for the many blessings he has showered down upon us. Our embarrassments may be the effect of our own errors but it is to His bounty and goodness we are indebted, that the fruits of the earth, as well as the productions of industry, abound throughout the land. If, in addition to the monetary confusion which has grown out of our excessive speculations, it had pleased the Almighty further to chastise us with drought or scarcity, the condition of New South Wales, and more particularly that of the labouring classes of its population, might have been lamentable indeed. As it

SPEECH OF SIR GEORGE GIPPS.

119

is I do not doubt that, by frugality and prudence, we may overcome all our difficulties; and, I am happy to say, there is nothing in what more immediately concerns the government, to lessen in any degree the confidence which I feel in the stability of the country. Cheapness and plenty cannot be permanent impediments to the advancement of any community.

"I shall immediately cause to be laid before you numerous public documents of much importance, and some projects for amendment in the law. Amongst these latter will be the draft of an act for the establishment of a General Registry, and of one to regulate the office of sheriff. I shall also have to direct your attention to the state of the law. under which the Savings' Bank of the colony is established: the propriety will, I think, be readily admitted of placing the credit of this most useful institution beyond the reach of doubt.

"I shall speedily cause the estimates for the year 1844 to be brought under your consideration, and take advantage of that occasion to make a clear exposition of the financial state of the colony.

"The despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 181, of the 5th September, 1842, is a document of such importance, that I think it ought to appear on the record of your proceedings, and accordingly I shall lay it before you, notwithstanding it has been already printed by order of the late council.

"In this despatch, the views are explained of her Majesty's Government in respect to the Act of Parliament under the provisions of which I now meet you for the first time in this chamber.

"The benevolent intentions of her Majesty, her Majesty's advisers, and of the British Parliament, are so well set forth in the words of the noble Secretary of State, that I feel I should only weaken the effect they are calculated to produce upon you were I at any length to comment on them, or make to them additions of my own. I cannot, however, gentlemen, on this my first occasion of addressing you, avoid adverting to the peculiar constitution which has been given to your body-or to the fact, that to you singly have been confided by the Imperial Parliament the powers which, in some of the older colonies of Great Britain are divided between two separate bodies.

"The council, gentlemen, is composed of three elements, or three different classes of persons-the representatives of the people the official servants of her Majesty, and of gentlemen of independence-the unofficial nominees of the Crown.

"Let it not be said or supposed that these three classes of persons have, or ought to have, separate interests to support-still less that they have opposing interests, or any interest whatever, save that of the public good. Let there be no rivalry between them, save which shall in courtesy excel the other, and which of them devote itself most heartily to the service of their common country."

After the delivery of this speech the council adjourned until two o'clock, when the opposition commenced without delay its longbrooded operations, as shown in "Votes and Proceedings":

"Motion made and question put, That an humble address be presented to his excellency the governor, returning thanks to his excellency for his speech to the council.'

"Moved as an amendment that the word 'humble' be expunged; passed."

The following case, gathered from the reports of the committees of the Legislative Council appointed to inquire into certain gross cases of embezzlement and mismanagement, affords one example of the "patronage grievance," of the sort of persons selected for colonial office, the nature of the powers they assumed on the strength of holding a home instead of a colonial appointment, and the manner in which they performed their duties.

The Defaulting Registrar.

In 1841 the Registrar of the Supreme Court became a defaulter; in the following year he took the benefit of the Insolvent Act, and eventually paid a dividend of sixpence in the pound.

The committee which investigated his case, with the view of obtaining redress from the home government for the sufferers by the malversation of their appointed, reported, that the first registrar, Colonel Galway Mills, was a decayed gentleman, with no knowledge of business, and who, therefore, left what there was to be done to other officers. On his death the governor and council recommended that the office, in the then state of the colony not needed, should be abolished; but, before receiving or without attending to this recommendation, the defaulter in question, Mr. Mwas appointed. His antecedents were not more encouraging than those of Colonel Mills. In 1811 he had executed a deed of assignment of all his property for the benefit of his creditors; and in 1823, after returning from an eight years' residence on the Continent, had taken the benefit of the Insolvent Act; in 1828 had been appointed chief justice of Nova Scotia, and had been permitted to exchange the appointment for that of registrar of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, with the duty of collecting the effects of intestates, and, according to his own account, the privilege of investing the money for his own benefit pending its distribution.

On arrival at the colony he took up a high position; that part of his duty which related to registering deeds of grants of crown land he entirely neglected and suffered to fall into an arrear, which eventually involved great numbers of the humbler class in litigation and ruin. But the collection of the estates of intestates he entered on as zealously as any wrecker on the spoils of storms. The presence of near relatives was no protection for the moneys of the deceased; in defiance of son, brother, or father, he grasped all the estate, invested it in his own name, for his own benefit, and from 1828 to 1838 kept neither daybook, cash-book, nor ledger, but one account at his banker's, rendered