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in question, and for enabling those Legislatures to perform the duties to which they will be called. For we contemplate with great reluctance any departure from the general principle which leaves to the local Legislature of every Colony the creation of other local institutions, and the enactment of any laws which are to have their operation within the local limits of the Colony

This course, however, appeared impossible, mainly because of the existence, however shadowy, of the District Councils, which it seemed wrong to abolish, and which might be made less unpopular if they did not involve a local rate. The Report proposed to hand over the territorial revenue which was received by the Treasury for the public service of the respective Colonies to these District Councils.

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Passing to the subject of a Civil List, we have to observe that the very large proportion of the revenue of New South Wales, at present withdrawn from the control of the Legislature by the permanent appropriation of Parliament, has been a continual subject of complaint and remonstrance in the Colony since the passing of the Constitution Act of 1842; and we cannot conceal our opinion that these complaints are not without some foundation. It appears to us hardly consistent with the full adoption of the principles of Representative Government that as to a large part of the public expenditure of the Colony, the Legislature should be deprived of all authority; nor does there appear to us to be any real occasion for imposing a restriction upon the powers of that body which manifests so much jealousy as to the manner in which those powers may be exercised. The expenditure thus provided for is all incurred for services in which the Colonists alone are interested. The Colonists themselves are mainly concerned in the proper and efficient performance of those services; and it appears to us that they ought to possess, through their representatives, the power of making such changes from time to time in the public establishments as circumstances

may require. But while we are of opinion that there is no sufficient reason for refusing to the Legislatures of the Colonies a control over the whole of their expenditure, we also think that great inconvenience and very serious evils might be expected to arise from leaving the whole of the public establishments to be provided for by annual vote.1 In this country Your Majesty's Civil List is settled upon Your Majesty for life, and, in addition to this, Parliament has thought fit to provide, by a permanent charge on the Consolidated Fund for a very considerable part of the establishments kept up for the public service, including the whole of those of a judicial character, leaving to be defrayed by annual votes those charges only which have been regarded as requiring the more frequent revision of the Legislature. The reasons which have induced the British Parliament in this manner to withdraw various heads of expenditure from annual discussion, and to make provision for them in a manner which can only be altered by an Act of the whole Legislature, apply, as we apprehend, with much increased force in favour of adopting a similar policy in the Colonies. It is not to be denied that in these smaller societies party spirit is apt to run still higher than amongst ourselves, and that questions respecting the remuneration of public servants are occasionally discussed, rather with reference to personal feelings than to a calm consideration of the real interest of the community. We believe also, that true economy is promoted by giving to those who are employed in the public service some reasonable assurance for the permanence of their official incomes. It is thus only that efficient service can be secured in return for a moderate remuneration. With these views the arrangement which we should recommend is that Parliament should, in the first instance, charge upon the revenues of

1 Much of the friction under the old colonial system had been brought about by the refusal of the Colonial Assemblies to vote a permanent Civil List. (See Greene, op. cit., and Documents relating to Colonial History of New York, passim.)

the several Colonies an amount sufficient to defray the expenses of those services which it would be inexpedient to leave to be provided for by annual votes of the respective Legislatures, leaving, however to those Legislatures full power to alter this appropriation by laws to be passed in the usual form. It would remain for Your Majesty to determine what instructions should be given to the Governors of these Colonies, as to their assenting on behalf of the Crown to any laws which might be tendered to them by the Legislatures for repealing or altering any of the charges created by Parliament on the revenues of the respective Colonies.1 We conceive that it might be advisable by such instructions to restrain the Governors from assenting to Acts making any alterations in the salaries of their own offices, or of those of the Judges, and some others of the public servants, unless these Acts contained clauses suspending their operation until they should be confirmed by Your Majesty's immediate authority. It appears to us that this course ought to be adopted, because we consider that the salaries of the principal officers of the Colonial Governments ought not to be changed without Your Majesty's direct concurrence; and because the present holders of some of the offices of lower rank have received their appointments under circumstances which give them a strong claim to the protection which would be thus afforded them. . . . We doubt not that such claims would be respected by the local Legislatures, whatever reductions they might see fit to make in other cases; but we think that Your Majesty ought to secure them even from the risk of a hasty and ill-considered decision to their prejudice, occasioned by some temporary excitement; subject to these qualifications, we are of opinion that complete control over the Colonial expenditure ought to be given to the respective Legislatures.

1 A permanent Civil List was secured under the Acts of 1855-1856, under which responsiblo government was introduced.

There yet remains a question of considerable difficulty. By far the larger part of the revenue of the Australian Colonies is derived from duties on customs. But if, when Victoria shall have been separated from New South Wales, each province shall be authorised to impose duties according to its own wants, it is scarcely possible but that in process of time differences should arise between the rates of duty imposed upon the same articles in the one and in the other of them. There is already such a difference in the tariffs of South Australia and New South Wales; and although, until of late, this has been productive of little inconvenience, yet with the increase of settlers on either side of the imaginary line dividing them, it will become more and more serious. The division of New South Wales into two Colonies would further aggravate this inconvenience, if the change should lead to the introduction of three entirely distinct tariffs, and to the consequent necessity for imposing restrictions and securities on the import and export of goods between them. So great indeed would be the evil, and such the obstruction of the intercolonial trade, and so great the check to the development of the resources of each of these Colonies, that it seems to us necessary that there should be one tariff common to them all, so that goods might be carried from the one into the other with the same absolute freedom as between any two adjacent counties in England.

We are further of opinion that the same tariff should be established in Van Diemen's Land also, because the intercourse between that Island and the neighbouring Colonies in New Holland has risen to a great importance and extent, and has an obvious tendency to increase. Yet fiscal regulations on either side of the intervening strait must of necessity check, and might perhaps to a great extent destroy, that beneficial trade.

1 In fact in process of time Victoria enforced a strictly protective tariff, whilst that of New South Wales was based on Free Trade lines.

If the duties were uniform, it is obvious that there need be no restrictions whatever imposed upon the import or export of goods between the respective Colonies, and no motive for importing into one goods liable to duty, which were destined for consumption in another; and it may safely be calculated that each would receive the proportion of revenue to which it would be justly entitled, or, at all events, that there would be no departure from this to an extent of any practical importance.

Hence it seems to us that a uniformity in the rate of duties should be secured.

For this purpose we recommend that a uniform tariff should be established by the authority of Parliament,1 but that it should not take effect until twelve months had elapsed from the promulgation in the several Colonies of the proposed Act of Parliament. That interval would afford time for making any financial arrangements which the contemplated change might require in any of them; and by adopting the existing Tariff of New South Wales (with some modifications to adapt it to existing circumstances) as the General Tariff for Australia, we apprehend that there would be no risk of imposing upon the inhabitants of these Colonies a table of duties unsuited to their actual wants. We should not however be prepared to offer this recommendation unless we proposed at the same time to provide for making any alteration in this general tariff, which time and experience may dictate, and this we think can only be done by creating some authority competent to act for all those Colonies jointly.

For this purpose we propose that one of the Governors of the Australian Colonies should always hold from Your Majesty a Commission constituting him the GovernorGeneral of Australia.2 We think that he should be autho

1 Such a tariff was proposed in the Bill of 1849, but the provisions regarding it were omitted in the following year.

2 This proposal was afterwards adopted, but, without any other bond of union between the Colonies, led to no results.

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