Victoria 1855-1890

Responsible Government. In 1855, when each of the colonies was

engaged in framing for itself its own form of government, Victoria,

like all the others, chose the English system of two Houses of

Legislature. At first it was resolved that the Lower House, called the

Legislative Assembly, should consist of only sixty members; but by

subsequent additions, the number has been increased to eighty-six: in

1857 the right of v ting was conferred upon every man who had resided a

sufficient length of time in the colony. With regard to the Upper House

Victoria found the same difficulty as had been experienced in New South

Wales; but, instead of introducing the system of nomination by the

Government, it decided that its Legislative Council should be elected by

the people. In order, however, that this body might not be identical in

form and opinion with the Lower House, it was arranged that no one

should be eligible for election to it who did not possess at least five

thousand pounds worth of real property, and that the privilege of voting

should be confined to the wealthier part of the community.



Along with this new Constitution responsible government was introduced;

and Mr. Haines, being sent for by the Governor, formed the first

Ministry. Before the close of the year, the first contest under the new

system took place. Mr. Nicholson, a member of the Assembly, moved that

the voting for elections should in future be carried on in secret, by

means of the ballot-box, so that every man might be able to give his

opinion undeterred by any external pressure, such as the fear of

displeasing his employer or of disobliging a friend. The Government of

Mr. Haines refused its assent to this proposal, which was, nevertheless,

carried by the Assembly. Now, the system of responsible government

required that, in such a case, Mr. Haines and his fellow-Ministers,

being averse to such a law and declining to carry it out, should resign

and leave the government to those who were willing and able to

inaugurate the newly-appointed system. Accordingly they gave in their

resignations, and the Governor asked Mr. Nicholson to form a new

Ministry; but, though many members had voted for his proposal, they were

not prepared to follow him as their leader. He could obtain very few

associates, and was thus unable to form a Ministry; so that there

appeared some likelihood of a total failure of responsible government

before it had been six months in existence. In the midst of this crisis

Sir Charles Hotham was taken ill. He had been present at a prolonged

ceremony--the opening of the first gasworks in Melbourne--and a cold

south wind had given him a dangerous chill. He lay for a day or two in

great danger; but the crisis seemed past, and he had begun to recover,

when news was brought to him of Mr. Nicholson's failure. He lay brooding

over these difficulties, which pressed so much upon his mind that he was

unable to rally, and on the last day of the year 1855 he died. This was

a great shock to the colonists, who had learnt highly to respect him.

The vacant position was for a year assumed by Major-General Macarthur,

who invited Mr. Haines and his Ministry to return. They did so, and the

course of responsible government began again from the beginning. At the

end of 1856 another Governor--Sir Henry Barkly--arrived; and during the

seven years of his stay the new system worked smoothly enough, the only

peculiarity being the rapid changes in the Government. Some of the

Ministries lasted only six weeks, and very few protracted their

existence to a year.








The Deadlock. Sir Henry Barkly left the colony in 1863, and his

place was immediately filled by Sir Charles Darling, nephew of Sir Ralph

Darling, who, forty years before, had been Governor of New South Wales.

Sir Charles was destined to troublous times; for he had not been long in

the colony ere a most vexatious hitch took place in the working of

constitutional government. It arose out of a straggle with regard to

what is called "Protection to Native Industry".



The colony was filled with vigorous and enterprising men, who had come

to it for the purpose of digging for gold. For four or five years gold

digging had been on the average a fairly remunerative occupation. But

when all the surface gold had been gathered, and it became necessary to

dig shafts many hundreds of feet into the earth, and even then in many

cases only to get quartz, from which the gold had to be extracted by

crushing and careful washing, then the ordinary worker, who had no

command of capital, had to take employment with the wealthier people,

who could afford to sink shafts and wait for years before the gold

appeared. These men, therefore, had to take small wages for toiling at a

most laborious occupation. But most of them had learnt trades of some

sort in Europe; and the idea sprang up that if the colony prevented

boots from coming into it from outside there would be plenty of work

for the bootmakers; if it stopped the importation of engines there would

no longer be any reason why engineers should work like navvies at the

bottom of gold mines--they would be wanted to make the engines of the

colony. After a long agitation, therefore, James M'Culloch, the Premier

of the colony, in 1864 brought a bill into the Victorian Legislative

Assembly according to which taxes were to be placed on all goods coming

into the colony if they were of a sort that might be made within the

colony. M'Culloch proposed to make this change because it was ardently

desired by the working men of the colony, and these could by their votes

control the action of the Legislative Assembly. But the Upper House,

called the Legislative Council, composed of wealthy men, who had been

elected by the wealthier part of the community, thought, after careful

decision, that any such plan would ruin the commerce of the colony

without much benefiting its industries. They therefore rejected the

proposed bill.



M'Culloch tried to persuade them to pass it, but they were obstinate. He

then resorted to a trick which is in itself objectionable, but which is

perhaps excusable when the great body of the people wish a certain thing

and a small body like the Legislative Council are resolved to thwart

them. It is part of our constitutional law that all bills dealing with

money matters must be prepared in the Lower House; the Upper House can

then accept them or reject them as they stand, but is not allowed to

alter them.



Now, once a year Parliament has to pass a bill called the Appropriation

Act, by which authority is given to the Government to spend the public

money in the various ways that Parliament directs. In 1865 M'Culloch put

the whole of the Protective Tariff Bill into the Appropriation Act as if

it were a part of that Act, though really it had nothing to do with it.

The Legislative Assembly passed the Appropriation Act with this

insertion. The Legislative Council now found itself in a most unlucky

position. If it passed the Appropriation Act it would also pass the

Protective Tariff Bill, which it detested. But if it rejected the

Appropriation Act, then the Government would have no authority to pay

away any money, and so all the officers of the State, the civil

servants and the policemen, the teachers, the gaolers, the surveyors

and the tide-waiters, would all have to go on for a year without any

salaries. There was no middle course open, for the Council could not

alter the Appropriation Act and then pass it.



Whether was it to pass the Act and make the protective tariff the law of

the land; or reject it, and run the risk of making a number of innocent

people starve? It chose the latter alternative, and threw out the bill.

The whole country became immensely excited, and seemed like one debating

club, where men argued warmly either for or against the Council.



Matters were becoming serious, when the Ministry discovered an ingenious

device for obtaining money. According to British law, if a man is unable

to obtain from the Government what it owes him, he sues for it in the

Supreme Court; and then, if this Court decides in his favour, it orders

the money to be paid, quite independently of any Appropriation Act, out

of the sums that may be lying in the Treasury. In their emergency, the

Ministry applied to the banks for a loan of money; five of them refused,

but the sixth agreed to lend forty thousand pounds. With this the

Government servants were paid, and then the bank demanded its money from

the Government; but the Government had no authority from Parliament to

pay any money, and could not legally pay it. The bank then brought its

action at law. The Supreme Court gave its order, and the money was paid

to the bank out of the Treasury. Thus a means had been discovered of

obtaining all the money that was required without asking the consent of

Parliament. Throughout the year 1865 the salaries of officers were

obtained in this way; but in 1866 the Upper House, seeing that it was

being beaten, offered to hold a conference. Each House made concessions

to the other, the Tariff Bill was passed, with some alterations, the

Appropriation Bill was then agreed to in the ordinary way, and the

"Deadlock" came to an end.





The Darling Grant. But, in its train, other troubles followed; for

the English authorities were displeased with Sir Charles Darling for

allowing the Government to act as it did. They showed how he might have

prevented it, and, to mark their dissatisfaction, they recalled him in

1866. He bitterly complained of this harsh treatment; and the Assembly,

regarding him as, in some measure, a martyr to the cause of the people,

determined to recompense him for his loss of salary. In the

Appropriation Act of 1867 they therefore passed a grant of L20,000 to

Lady Darling, intending it for the use of her husband. The Upper House

owed no debt of gratitude to Sir Charles, and, accordingly, it once more

threw out the Appropriation Bill. Again there was the same bitter

dispute, and again the public creditors were obliged to sue for their

money in the Supreme Court. In a short time four thousand five hundred

such pretended actions were laid, the Government making no defence, and

the order being given in each case that the money should be paid.



In 1866 the new Governor--Viscount Canterbury--arrived; but the struggle

was still continued, till, in 1868, Sir Charles Darling informed

M'Culloch that Lady Darling would decline to receive the money, as he

was receiving instead five thousand pounds as arrears of salary and a

lucrative position in England. The Upper House then passed the

Appropriation Bill, and the contest came to an end.





Payment of Members. But they had other things to quarrel about. The

working men of the colony thought that they never would get fair

treatment in regard to the laws until working men were themselves in

Parliament. But that could not be, so long as they had to leave their

trades and spend their time in making laws while getting nothing for it.

Hence they were resolved on having all members of Parliament paid, and

they elected persons to the Lower House who were in favour of that

principle. But the better-off people sent persons into the Upper House

who were against it. Thus for twenty years a struggle took place, but in

the end the working men carried their point; and it was settled that

every member of Parliament should receive three hundred pounds a year.

The two Houses also quarrelled about the manner in which the land was

to be sold; the Lower House being anxious to put it into the hands of

industrious people who were likely to work on it as farmers, even though

they could pay very little for it; the Upper House preferring that it

should be sold to the people who offered the most money for it. On this

and other questions in dispute the Lower House gained the victory.





Exhibitions. It was not till the year 1880 that all these

contentions were set at rest, but from that time the colony passed into

a period of peace, during which it made the most astonishing progress in

all directions. That progress was indicated in a most decided way by the

exhibitions held in the colony. It had from time to time in previous

years held inter-colonial exhibitions at which all the colonies had met

in friendly competition. But in 1880, and again in 1888, Victoria

invited all the world to exhibit their products at her show. A

magnificent building was erected in one of the parks of Melbourne, and

behind it were placed acres of temporary wooden erections, and the whole

was filled with twenty acres of exhibits. A similar show, held in 1888,

was much larger, and helped, by its fine collection of pictures, its

grand displays of machinery, its educational courts, its fine orchestral

music, and so on, in a hundred ways to stimulate and develop the minds

of the people. During recent years Victoria has been very busy in

social legislation. While enjoying peace under the direction of a

coalition Government with Mr. Duncan Gillies and Mr. Alfred Deakin at

its head, the colony has tried experiments in regulating the liquor

traffic; in closing shops at an early hour; in irrigating the waterless

plains of the north-west, and in educating farmers and others into the

most approved methods of managing their businesses. What is to be the

eventual result no one can as yet very definitely prophesy. But the eyes

of many thoughtful persons throughout the world are at present turned to

Victoria to see how those schemes are working which have been so

zealously undertaken for the good of the people.









Up till 1890 the progress of the colony was astonishing. Its central

half forms a network of railways. Its agriculture and its trades have

doubled themselves every few years; and though a period of restless

activity and progress was in 1890 followed by a time of severe

depression, the community, like all the other Australian colonies,

has great times of prosperity in store for it.