SYDNEY

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 57, 7 February 1852, Page 2

SYDNEY

We now find an opportunity of noticing an important and interesting debate which took place on the 11th December in the Legislative Council of New South Wales, on the Estimates for 185 land 1552. We understand that on a previous day the member for Sydney, Mr. Wentworth, distinguished himself by a most eloquent and telling speech upon the general subject of the right of the Legislative Council to regulate entirely and minutely the expenditure of the public' funds, as opposed to Government and Downing Street control over such expenditure. That speech we are unable, from the incompleteness of our files received, to lay before our readers at the present time; we hope,however, to do so in an early number. Meanwhile, we extract from two of the speeches in the supplementary debate, which affords an apt and so far fortunate illustration of the evils of the system which Mr. Wentworth in his former speech sought to deprecate. By their own confession, it appeared that the Government had spent during two years and a-half ending 30th June, 1851, upwards of nine thousand pounds in excess of the money allowed by the schedules, which were therefore insolvent. Not only so, but it had gone far to imitate the defaulter who incurs punishment under the Insolvency Act for not keeping proper books of account by which to examine into the state of his affairs, for the only excuse that was" alleged for thus outrunning their means at the rate of £300 per month was, that they did not know it. The Colonial Treasurer having moved the House into Committee on the Estimates, Mr. Donaldson, in taking up his stand on the 'vantage ground afforded him by the conduct of the Government, said,— *

" It was with an unfeigned consciousness of his inability to take the lead in this matter—with a deep conviction of how much more ably it would have been dealt with by the hon. and learned member for Sydne)', whose words of eloquence on the subject of these schedules were still ringing in his ears, —that he rose on the present occasion, be hoped for the last time, to fight the battle of the schedules, which had been so often fought before in that house. But conscious as he was of inferiority, as the hon. and learned member had not come forward, as the acknowledged leader of the house, a place which all assigned to him, to take this question in hand; and as he had been pressed by many of his friends to do so, however he might fail in ability he should not shrink from the duty thus conferred upon him, and he trusted this night that the house would, for the last time, meet on this battle field to defend the right of spending their own money, and to put down the grievance of these schedules for ever. He meant to move an amendment on the motion of the hon. member the Colonial Treasurer, which amendment he would now read to the house. " That the motion be amended by adding at the end thereof the words, 'and that with reference to His Excellency the Governor-General's Message, No. 33, in which a vote is requested for the sum of 5817/. 4s. 7d., to cover an excess of expenditure which has taken place upon the schedules A and B, of the Imperial Act 5 and 6 Victoria, cap. 76, it be an instruction to the Committee not to vote any sum in aid of those schedules.'" Ihe noble speech made by his hon. and learned friend toe member for Sydney, the othpr night, would, he trusted, be read by all the friends of the colonies in England, and he would say that this speech afforded the theme of which the proceedings that night would be the illustration. These schedules had, it was known to them all, been a grievance, and had been over and over again proclaimed a grievance since 184-2; but they had been mixed up with other grievances in the discussions which have hitherto taken place in respect to them. That night they had to deal with them alone, and he thought lie should be able to show that not. only were they a grievance in principle, but that they were utterly impracticable in practice, and. beyond the management of the Government altogether. That they were not only an inconvenience "to the Government, but while the Government could not keep its expenditure within these schedules it could not even keep a correct account of that expended un ler the schedules. He thought the position in which the Government was placed in regard to these schedules was a godsend to the country. He believed so. because now for the first time he believed the representatives of the people had these schedules in their power, and if they did their duty this night the battle was their own. They had now the opportunity of ridding themselves of this oppression, this grievance. He did not wish "o say anything however of the Government o- of its individual members. Far was it from him to impute to them any intentional wrong in respect to this subject, but when be looked on the aspect of this question as it

now came before them, he could not but think of the words of Oliver Cromwell, when he saw from the heights the position taken up by the opposing army previous to one of his bloodiest victories: " The Lord hath delivered them into my hand." (Roars of laughter.) So he believed this night, by the intricacy and confusion which these schedules had introduced into the accounts of the Government, the Government would be delivered into their hands, and that the schedules might thus be got rid of for ever. The embarrassment, the difficulty, the humiliating position in which these schedules had placed the Government would, he believed, have rendered it heartily sick of them, and it would with open heart and hand now do its best to have them abandoned altogether. He hoped, therefore, that the House would not on this occasion vote Is. for the schedules, until they were all brought before the Council by the Executive, to be discussed item by item. If they did otherwise, they would cast a censure on the acts of their predecessors, who had over and over again maintained this principle. He would now proceed to the dilemma in which the government was fixed."

The hon. member then recapitulated at length, and step by step, the manner in which the Government .outran schedules A and B by 5000/., and C by 4000/?., and went on to say, that "This Council was the champion and the guardian of the public credit in this colony ; ' cribbed, cabined, and confined,' as were their powers, he believed the Council had endeavoured conscientiously to discharge this duty to the fullest extent; aad that they had fulfilled every obligation which good faith and high honour called upon them to fulfil. It was, therefore, painful to have to notice this incorrectness in the accounts laid before them by the Government, but the exposure was a necessary one, and they were called upon to make it. Whatever difficulties may ensue, if the House were true to itself, it would not vote any excess to these schedules without having the items before them. To do so now, seeing that the excess had been caused by appropriations made in past years by the Government without the assent of the Council, would be to say that the house was to be bound by the schedules while the Government was not. If the Government might increase these schedules by 50007. in this manner, what was to prevent them increasing them by 50,000(, or 100.0007. ? If by complication of book-keeping the accounts could not be correctly kept, that the figures of the two departments of the Auditor-General and the Colonial Treasurer could not be made to square, and if they thought this was a desirable state of things, then let t'rem vote this money. If they thought that there should be one revenue independent of the control of the Council and another that was not, then let them vote this surplus to the schedules. But if, as he believed they did, they thought this reservation of the public money was a gross injustice, and that its appropriation had been attended with confusion and error likely to weaken public confidence in che Government, then they would refuse to vote one shilling to relieve the Government from the dilemma in which it was placed until che full control of the schedules was surrended to the Council. If they gained this triumph, he believed they would have virtually got rid of the schedules, and the Government both at home and in the colony would at length acknowledge that they were the best judges how the money of the public should be spent for the general good of the colony, He now begged to move the amendment. Mr. Lamb seconded the amendment moved by Mr. Donaldson. Th- Postmaster-General, the Auditor-General, and the Cdonbil Secretary having severally and respectively.defended the conduct of the Government,

Mr.Wi3N TTW»RTHsaid he had heard with great regret the principle maintained by the Colonial Secretary with almost the character of a menace to the house, that the Government could of its own motion assume the control and appropriation of these revenues, which it had already voluntarily relinquished. The many contests upon this point, and the bitter acerbities to which they had given rise, could scarcely be forgotten. He would ask the Colonial Secretary whether be desired to embarrass the closing years of the present administration by a revival of these acerbities. (Hear, hear.) After the elaborate reports which had been prepared upon this subject, and the unquestioned and unquestionable law which had been put forth, and which hat), in fact, been acquiesced in by the head of the Executive himself; he was surprised that his honourable friend—a lawyer—should seek to revive this abandoned claim—or that the Colonial Secretary should intimate a similar design on the part of the Government, particularly at a time when these very fees were a part and parcel of the ways and means upon which that house had founded its votes during the present session. (Hear, hear. ) He had never followed up the previous reports upon this subject by the proper step, the introduction of a declaratory bill, as to the law with reference to these appropriations, because the abandonment by the Government of the objectionable claim had

rendered such a measure unnecessllw ; but lie should be compelled to this step if tlrai obsolete clahn was revived, although he should much regret the necessity of a step so calculated to revive the bitter feeling which had passed away. (Hear, hear.) He did not believe that the Governor-General would himself have sought the revival of this claim, but that it was only his bad advisers who suggested such a course. He regretted the embarrassment of the Government, and was free to confess that it arose solely from inadvertence; but the house having denounced the maintenance of the schedules as a great and pressing grievance, could not pass a vote in aid of those schedules without stultifyinj&ai itself. (Hear, bear.) The house as well as thai* Government had a character to maintain, and could not degrade itself by stooping to a course so incon^ sistent with the principles already maintained. "^ (Hear, hear,) And the Government would not in reality softer, from such a decision. The money it was clear had been already taken from some source, for it had been spent. It had been taken from the general revenue, and the prerogative of that house had been infringed, or it had been taken from the territorial revenue, and the instructions of the Colonial Minister had been trenched upon. In either case the position of the Government was resolvable into one of mere indebtedness, and must be allowed to remain so for ever, rather than that the house should degrade itself by coming to such a decision as was sought for.

After several speeches on both sides, the question was put on the amendment, which was lost in a minority of only two votes. The original motion was then carried, and the House went into Committee ; the opposition of the member for Sydney, however, and of the other opponents to the vote for allowing the surplus expenditure of the Government, being still actively continued. Our readers will anxiously look for the next arrival from Sydney, to learn the progress of a struggle so interesting, and in maintaining the great principle of which, perfect control by representatives over the expenditure of public money, we are engaged equally with the people of New South Wales, as far as our more limited opportunities allow.

The New Australian Postage Bilj,. — <*^ The new Postage Bill introduced by the Government has been printed, and was read a * second time on Thursday last. It repeals the Postage Act of 1840,-except in so far as the same repeals certain preceding acts ; but this is done for the purpose, we presume, of embodying the whole of the postal enactments into one law, as the new bill is chiefly a copy of the act which it repeals. There are, however, a few important alterations in the new measure. Certain powers are given to the Governor and Executive Couticil to regulate the management and establishment of the post offices within the colony, with a view no flmibt to the recommendatiotis of the late Board of Inquiry being carried out. The Postmaster-General's salary is fixed at £800 per annum. From the Ist of January, the pre-payment of all letters, packets, and parcels, is to be compulsory ; and except in cases where the postmasters cannot supply stamps, this pre-payment must be marie by stamps being affixed on the letters, 'kc. The postmasters tire required to keep a sufficient supply of stamps on hand. The registration fee is also in future to be pre-paid by stamps. The Governor and Executive Council are authorised to make arrangements \'or the optional prepayment of letters to and from Britain and foreign countries. Newspapers printed in the colony are to be conveyed postage free, if transmitted within seven days of their date; if more than seven days old, to be charged one penny each ; all newspapers from abroad tire to be conveyed free of postage. These tire the chief alterations we observe on a hasty comparison of the new bill with the act now in force. — Maitlaiid Mercury. Mr. Spain.—A discussion in the Council had s/ elicited the circumstances which led to Mr.-*' Spain's resignation of the honours and emoluments of the Inspector-Generalship of Police. The magistrates of the Penrith Bench had formally called his attention to the alleged inefficient state of the police force in Unit district. Mr. Spain had referred their remonstrance to Mr. Provincial Inspector Scott, and, on receiving his report, forwarded it to the Bench as J evidence that their charges were " unnecessary and without foundation." Their complaint, however, taken in connexion with disparaging observations made in the Legislative Council, so irritated Mr. Spain that he tendered his resignation, and, to quote his own words in the Council, " His Excellency had. done him the ! greatest.honour in his power by accepting it."