Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 42
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
• correspondence relating to this petition from the Town Council
of Melbourne, in which the Council prays for the entire
separation of the District of Port Phillip from New South Wales
and to its erection into a separate and independent Colony;
and,
• papers relating to, and a copy of, a petition of some 5,095
inhabitants of the District of Port Phillip praying for separation,
transmitted by the Superintendent of Port Phillip in his letter of
11 June 1846 (forwarded to the Secretary of State in
Governor's Despatch No.125 of 1846).
1848 Port Philip — CSIL 48/9370
Comprises papers relating to the election of Earl Grey as a Member
of the Legislative Council for the City of Melbourne. Included are: a
copy of letter from the Returning Officer for the City of Melbourne,
of 27 July 1848, returning the writ of election for the City of
Melbourne where he has certified the return of " `the Right
Honorable Henry Grey' (Earl Grey in the Peerage of Great
Britain)"; the Superintendent of Port Phillip in a letter of 28 July
1848 reporting the election of Earl Grey and transmitting the
voting papers ("His Excellency will see, that acting upon sudden
impulse, the Electors have actually returned Earl Grey as their
representative"); and the Law Officers in a letter of 22 August
giving their opinion on this.
CGS 905,
CSIL 48/9370
in [4/2823]
The Law Officers advised that there was
no enactment or provision in the Constitutional Act (5 & 6 Vict:
Ch: 76) which prevents a British Peer from being elected and
sitting as a Member of the Legislative Council of this Colony,
neither can it be taken for granted that Earl Grey has not
sufficient landed property within the Colony to qualify him to
take his seat, it appears to us therefore that whatever may
have been the intention of the Electors of Melbourne in
returning Lord Grey, there is nothing illegal on the face of that
return, and that for the present at least he must be considered
in law as their Representative.
This correspondence was forwarded to the Secretary of State in
the Governor's Despatch No.205 of 22 September 1848.
Governor's and Colonial Secretary's Minutes and
Memoranda
CGS 909
Many of the Minutes for the 1840s and 1850s are originals,
duplicates or copies of despatches from the Secretary of State to
the Governor. They mainly differ from the despatches in the series
Governor: Despatches, circulars and cables from the Secretary of
State and the Under Secretary, and copies of despatches to the
Secretary of State, and copies of despatches to the Secretary of
State, NRS 4512, by the correspondence and other papers which
are often included with them.
1842 Minutes — M5757
Topnumbered as M5757 is a copy of the Secretary of State's
Despatch of 2 October 1841, No.9. In this despatch Lord Stanley
acknowledges receipt of a petition from several of the inhabitants
of the District of Port Phillip praying that "the Province of Australia
Felix may be formed into a separate Government".
State Records Authority of New South Wales
CGS 909,
M5757 in
[4/1019]
41