intermission, and the completion thereof with all practicable speed.1

XI. ADMISSION OF OTHER COLONIES.

admit

land, &c.,

Union.

146. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Power to advice of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Newon Addresses from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada, foundand from the Houses of the respective Legislatures of the into the Colonies or Provinces of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia, to admit those Colonies or Provinces, or any of them, into the Union, and on Address from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada to admit Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory, or either of them, into the Union, on such terms and conditions in each case as are in the Addresses expressed and as the Queen thinks fit to approve, subject to the provisions of this Act; and the provisions of any Order in Council in that behalf shall have effect as if they had been enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.2

New

presentabe tion of of foundland this and Prince

147. In case of the admission of Newfoundland and As to rePrince Edward Island or either of them, each shall entitled to a representation, in the Senate of Canada, Four Members, and (notwithstanding anything in Act) in case of the admission of Newfoundland the Island in

1 On the Intercolonial Railway, see The Intercolonial Railway, by Sandford Fleming, 1876. Before the making of this railway the journey from Halifax to Montreal was by boat to Portland in the United States and thence by rail to Montreal.

2 Prince Edward Island was admitted into the Union by Order-inCouncil dated June 26, 1873.

British Columbia was admitted into the Union by Order-in-Council dated May 16, 1871.

Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory were admitted into the Union by Order-in-Council dated June 23, 1870.

A British Act of 1871 (34 & 35 Vic. ch. 28) made clear the right of the Parliament of Canada to establish Provinces in new Territories forming part of the Dominion, and a subsequent Act of 1886 (49 & 50 Vict. ch. 35) gave that Parliament power to provide representation in the Senate and House of Commons for Territories not yet included in any Province.

Edward

Senate,

normal number of Senators shall be Seventy-six and their maximum number shall be Eighty-two; but Prince Edward Island when admitted shall be deemed to be comprised in the third of the Three Divisions into which Canada is, in relation to the constitution of the Senate, divided by this Act, and accordingly, after the admission of Prince Edward Island, whether Newfoundland is admitted or not, the representation of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the Senate shall, as vacancies occur, be reduced from Twelve to Ten Members respectively, and the representation of each of those Provinces shall not be increased at any time beyond Ten, except under the provisions of this Act, for the appointment of Three or Six additional Senators under the direction of the Queen. NOTE. It has not been thought necessary for the purpose of this volume to reprint the schedules to the British North America Act.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

1

FOR TRADE AND PLANTATIONS OF PRIVY COUNCIL ON PROPOSED AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION.

DATED MAY 1, 1849.

[The text is as given in Lord Grey's The Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration, 1853, vol. i, Appendix I, pp. 422-56. It will also be found in Parl. Papers, 1849, vol. xxxv.]

After remarking upon the contrast between the practice observed in the nineteenth century and the practice observed in earlier times respecting the establishment of systems of Civil Government in the Colonies, and pointing out the more liberal character of the former system, the Report proceeds :

"But in sanctioning that departure from the general type or model of the earlier colonial Constitutions, it has been the practice of Parliament to recognize the ancient principle, and to record the purpose of resuming the former constitutional practice so soon as the causes should have ceased to operate, which in each particular case had forbidden the immediate observance of it. Nor has the pledge thus repeatedly given been forgotten. It has been redeemed in New South Wales, except so far as relates to the combination which has taken place there of the Council and Assembly into one Legislative House or Chamber. It has been redeemed with regard to New Zealand, although peculiar circumstances have required a temporary postponement of the operation in that Colony of the Act passed by Parliament for establishing in it a Representative Legislature.2

We are of opinion that the time has not yet arrived for conferring the franchise on the Colonists of Western Australia, because they are unable to fulfil the condition on which alone, it appears to us, such a grant ought to be made; the

The Committee consisted of Mr. Labouchere, the President of the Board of Trade, Lord Campbell, Sir James Stephen, who had recently resigned the office of Permanent Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office, and Sir Edward Ryan, a retired Indian judge.

2 On this see chap. ix of G. C. Henderson's Life of Sir George Grey, 1907.

condition, that is, of sustaining the expense of their own Civil Government, by means of the local revenue, which would be placed under the direction and control of their representatives. Whenever the Settlers in Western Australia shall be willing and able to perform this condition, they ought, we apprehend, to be admitted to the full enjoyment of the corresponding franchises, but not till then.1

The Colonies of South Australia and Van Diemen's Land, being on the other hand at once willing and able to provide by local resources for the public expenditure of each, or at least for so much of that expenditure as is incurred with a view to colonial and local objects, the time has in our judgement arrived when Parliament may properly be recommended to institute in each of these Colonies a legislature, in which the representatives of the people at large shall enjoy and exercise their constitutional authority.

In submitting to Your Majesty this advice, we are only repeating an opinion so familiar and so generally adopted by all persons conversant with the Government of the British Colonies, that it would seem superfluous to support it by argument or explanation. The introduction of this constitutional principle into every dependency of the British Crown is a general rule sanctioned by a common and clear assent. The exception to that rule arises only when it can be shown that the observance of it will induce evils still more considerable than those which it would obviate and correct. We are aware of no reason for apprehending that such a preponderance of evil would follow on the introduction of such a change in South Australia and Van Diemen's Land. The contrary anticipation appears to be entertained by all those who possess the best means and the greatest powers of foreseeing the probable results of such a measure. We therefore recommend that, during the present session of Parliament, a Bill shall be introduced for securing to the

1 It was not till 1870 that the Legislative Council of Western Australia consisted, with regard to two-thirds of it, of elected members.

representatives of the people of South Australia and Van Diemen's Land respectively, their due share in the legislation of each of those Colonies.

We apprehend however that it would be found highly inconvenient to consider the question as it regards those two settlements, without at the same time adverting to the effects with which such a change in them must be followed in the whole range of the Australian Colonies.

New Holland is at present divided between the three Governments of New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia. The most cursory inspection of the maps and charts of those regions will sufficiently show, that as they shall become more populous and more extensively settled, it will be necessary to divide them into a greater number of distinct Colonies. But, confining our immediate attention to the case of New South Wales, we observe that. the cities of Sydney and of Melbourne, lying at a great distance from each other, form the respective capitals of districts of great extent, separated from each other by diversities of climate and by some corresponding differences in their natural resources, and in the agricultural and commercial pursuits followed in each of them. The inhabitants of the southern districts have long and earnestly solicited that Melbourne should be made the seat and centre of a Colonial Government separated from that of Sydney; and so decided has this wish become of late, that on the recent general election of members of the Legislature of New South Wales collectively, the inhabitants of the southern district have virtually and in effect refused to make any such choice. The reluctance which was at first so naturally entertained at Sydney to the proposed innovation, appears to have gradually but effectually yielded to the progress of knowledge and reasoning on the subject. The Governor and the Executive Council, the existing Legislature, and, as we believe, the great body of the Colonists, now favour the 1 They elected Lord Grey as their representative.

1