Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 29
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
This Act constituted a Legislative Council of 36 members of which
twelve were to be appointed by Her Majesty from time to time and
the other 24 were to be elected by the inhabitants of the Colony.
The Act also specified: that the Legislature was to enact legislation
constituting Electoral Districts, for declaring the number of
members to be elected for each District, for the compilation and
revision of the Electoral Lists and so on; and, the qualifications of
electors and of the elective members.
Section 51 (LI) was particularly important as it provided for the
dividing off of parts of New South Wales to form new separate
Colonies:
... be it therefore enacted, That, any thing herein-before
contained to the contrary notwithstanding, it shall be lawful for
Her Majesty, by Letters Patent, to be from Time to Time issued
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, to define, as to Her Majesty shall seem meet, the
Limits of the Colony of New South Wales, and to erect into a
separate Colony or Colonies any Territories which now are, or
are reputed to be, or hereafter may be comprised within the
said Colony of New South Wales: Provided always, that no Part
of the Territories lying Southward of the Twenty-sixth Degree of
South Latitude in the said Colony of New South Wales shall by
any such Letters Patent as aforesaid be detached from the said
Colony.
Only a copy of the Act and a memo are included. The memo dated
23 July 1845 in Governor Gipps' handwriting notes that the
Despatch is printed at page 21 of the Proceedings of the
Legislative Council for 1843 and that the "Instructions which
accompanied it, are with my Commissions, in the Record Room".
NRS 4512,
[4/1326]
1847 Despatches
Box [4/1326] contains the following despatch —
Despatch No. 203 of 31 July 1847: the Secretary of State
communicating the decision of Her Majesty's Government on the
question of the erection of the Port Phillip District into a separate
Colony under a distinct Government and notifying that:
• the necessary Bill will be introduced in the next Session of the
Imperial Parliament;
Despatch No.203
• the new Colony will be called Victoria;
• the Constitution of New South Wales will be altered and some
measures adopted to enable the different Colonies to cooperate
in enacting laws.
The Despatch was laid before the Executive Council on
23 December 1847.
The Despatch, which had been published in the Colony for general
information, resulted in a number of protests against the projected
changes in the Constitution, particularly in respect of the electoral
franchise.
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State Records Authority of New South Wales