Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 57
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
CGS 909,
[4/7160]
1852 Minutes
Box [4/7160] includes the following Topnumbered as M10499 is a printed copy of Secretary of State
Despatch No.161 of 27 December 1851. In this despatch Earl Grey
acknowledges receipt of the Governor's despatch of 29 January
1851 (No. 17), which enclosed a petition from the residents in the
districts lying northward of the 30th parallel of latitude in New
South Wales praying for the immediate erection of Moreton Bay
and the surrounding districts into a separate colony, and also that
convicts might again be sent there, as well as a letter from the
Committee appointed at a public meeting held in Armidale on
30 December 1850 enclosing a resolution then adopted that this
district be included in the proposed new colony.
M10499
Earl Grey also refers to the Governor's Despatch of 4 April 1851,
No.70, which enclosed a further petition from other inhabitants of
the Northern Districts also praying for the division of the colony
but protesting against the revival of transportation in any form
whatever. "I have been advised that the Petitions would be
sufficient, under the terms of the Act of Parliament, to enable Her
Majesty to proceed at once, to exercise the power it has conferred
upon Her, by dividing the Colony. ... But upon considering the
reasons urged in favor of that measure by the Petitioners, and
those advanced in opposition to it in the Minute of the Executive
Council, it has appeared to Her Majesty's Government that its
adoption, ought at all events, to be deferred. It is obvious that in
the present condition of the Northern Districts with so small a
Population and so scanty a Revenue, the establishment of a
separate Government there would be attended with some
inconvenience".
Topnumbered as M10506 is a copy of Secretary of State Despatch
No.2 of 5 January 1852. This transmits a copy of a letter received
from Arthur Hodgson, dated 30 May 1851, concerning a public
meeting held at Brisbane relating to the separation of the Northern
Districts from New South Wales and the "introduction of Exiles
accompanied by Free Emigrants into those Districts", and a second
from Mr P Leslie and other gentlemen, dated 22 July 1851, who
had been appointed a Committee at a public meeting held at
Drayton with the same objects.
1853 Minutes — M11154
Topnumbered as M11154 is Duplicate Despatch No.93 of
9 December 1852 from the Secretary of State. This acknowledges
receipt of the Governor's despatch, No. 104 of 30 June 1852, and
intimates in reply to Mr Marsh, whose letter had been enclosed in
that Despatch, that as transportation had ceased to the "Colonies
situated on the Southern or Eastern sides of Australia" convicts
could not be sent there and, in addition, that "Her Majesty's
Government do not at present see any sufficient reason or other
grounds to erect those districts into a separate Colony". Also
included is a letter from Mr H Marsh, who was Member of the
Legislative Council for the United Districts of New England and
McLeay, dated 11 May 1852, which is the one referred to in the
Despatch.
56
M10506
CGS 909,
M11154 in
[4/1044]
State Records Authority of New South Wales