Constitutional Experiments.

(that is to say, one member for each district) retiring triennially. The Assembly contains sixty-five members, returned by the same number of electorates, under the system of adult suffrage. In 1911 an Act was passed for compulsory preferential voting at elections for the Assembly, the voter placing a number (1, 2 or 3, etc.) in order of his preference, opposite the names of all the candidates.*

Two interesting constitutional experiments have been tried in Victoria. The first was the election in 1903 of representatives of a special class in the community. To the Council the State railway and public servants elected one representative, whilst for the Assembly two members were chosen by the railway employees and one by the public service. The provision was the outcome of a fear that under ordinary conditions this class of elector might, by reason of its numerical strength, unduly control the general elections. However, the experiment was abandoned in 1906. The second experiment had to do with deadlocks, Victoria having had a few bitter experiences of controversy between the two Houses. The clause, which is still in force, provides that a simultaneous dissolution of the two Houses shall take place if the Council twice reject a measure passed by the Assembly, provided

* Vide Section on Tasmania for explanation of preferential voting.

that one rejection has occurred before, and the
second after, a dissolution of the Assembly.
The Council's power respecting appropriation
bills is limited to accepting or rejecting them
in toto; it may not amend them, though it may
suggest alterations once at each of three stages
of the bill, viz. (a) when in committee; (b)
on the report of the committee, and (c) on the
third reading. The Constitution also limits
the Ministry to eight members, not more than
two to be chosen from the Council and six from
Minister from the

the Assembly. But a
Assembly has the right to sit in the Council
in order to explain Government measures,
though he is not entitled to vote except in the
House to which he belongs.

QUEENSLAND.

Moreton Bay was first used by white people as a penal settlement in 1824, persons convicted of offences in New South Wales being sent thither. The discovery of the rich pastoral land of the Darling Downs soon led to the migration of free settlers northwards, and as the population increased, the

Northern District of New South Wales" was The Northern constituted a distinct electoral division in 1843. District of New

The inhabitants immediately around Moreton South Wales. Bay, however, benefited little from this political distinction, since the constituency ex

tended as far south as Port Macquarie and the Upper Hunter Valley, whilst the head polling place was situated at Raymond Terrace on the Hunter. Their voice in politics was very aptly described as an "inaudible squeak." But with the next few years the population of Moreton Bay territory grew steadily, and by 1851 it was sufficiently important to boast a member of its own. This representation of one was increased to two in 1853, four (including the Clarence River district) in 1855, and nine in 1858. Stimulated by Victoria's success, the Northerners started an agitation for separation. As early as 1846 Lord Stanley (afterwards the Earl of Derby) had announced the necessity in the near future of erecting a new colony north of New South Wales, and the Constitution Act had anticipated this necessity by empowering the Queen to establish the colony whenever it seemed desirable so to do. Consequently, in 1859 all the territory north of Separation in 1859 the 29th parallel and east of the 141st meridian was cut off from New South Wales and erected into a separate colony under the name of Queensland. For some time the fate of the Richmond and Clarence River districts hung in the balance, as there was a fierce demand that these, too, should be attached to the new colony; but eventually it was decided to leave them to the parent colony. (See also page 6.)

One of the privileges of Queensland's late