OPENING OF THE NEW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. [From the Sydney Herald, September 2.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 570, 1 October 1851, Page 2

OPENING OF THE NEW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. [From the Sydney Herald, September 2.]

Oun Southern sister hns been fir*tin tlie field asros^rdg the boon of representation which the Aubtmhan Colonies' Government Act has gianttd to the younger colonies of the group, Van Diemen's L.md, Soutli Australin, and Victoria. The new Council met on the 20th of August ultimo, and the inaugurating ceremony was performed with all the pomp and circumstance which very imperfect arrangements admitted of. The Supreme Court, a vciv awkward and inconvenient building, was fitted up for the occasion; and notwithstanding the want of chairs, tables, and other necessaries, a tolerably brilliant mhe en scene seems to have been got up. The oaths having been administered to the members, the fiist proceeding was the election of a Speaker. Captain Bagot proposed Mr. Morpbett, dwelling 1 , however, in strong terms upon the uiversal regret of the colonists that His Excellency had not acceded to their vr»sh and created Mr. Fisher a Crown nominee. Pronouncing the highest eulogy upon the latter gentleman, Captain Bagot said, that in bis exclusion from the Council, the next individual who, in his opinion, was fittest for the high office of Speaker, was Mr. Morplwtt. The Colonial Secrt-tary seconded the motion. J* Mr. Dutton, Mr. Kingston, and Mr. Giles, spolce in favour of the proposal ; each, at the same time, expressing his regret at the exclusion of Mr. Fisher from the Council. The motion was carried nem. con. f and His Excellency's approval of the choice having been notified, Mr. Morphett took the chair. The Speaker and the Official Members then introduced His Excellency Sir Henry Young, who, having taken his seat on the bench, read tbe following Spekcii. Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, — I cordially congratulate you, that you are now duly assembled in order to enter on tbe free actioa of Constitutional Government, subject only to that supremo power of Her Majesty in Parliampnt, to which all our fellow-country-men in Her Majesty's possessions, cheerfully render loyal obedience, 2. Tbe condition of the present assembly is necessarily, in some respects, an experiment, and the Imperial Legislature in establishing it has, with a wise liberality, placed in your hands the power of introducing 1 those modifications in tbe details, of whicb experience may show the necessity by Bills, to be reserved for tho signification of Her Majesty's pleasure. These modifications regard — Ist. The Election of the Elective Members, 2nd. The qualification of Electors and Elective Members. 3rd. The establishment of separate Legislative Houses. Without deprecating the introduction of any changes in theße particulars, which may enable the Legislative body most effectually to represent the deliberate conviction, and to advance the permanent interests of the colony, I would suggest the wisdom and expediency of such a trial of the present Constitution as may show that any modifications which you may hereafter propose are designed to remedy proved inconveniencp, and not to comply with theoretical requirements. This is, I think, due both to the Imperial authority by which the Constitution was framed, and to your own position as the representatives, not alone of the present population of the colony, but also of tbe numbers by whom, in the course of a few years, that population may bo recruited. And considering that within a period but little greater than the allotted duration of this Assembly, the population of the coloDy has nearly trebled, we may reasonably expect that tbe number of those who will yet be added to our community, and whose opinions and wishes ought to have weight on this subject, will be such as to justify the delay which I suggest. 3. The amount payable to Her Majesty out of tbo Colonial Revenue, under the 17th clause of the Act for tbe better Government of Her Majesty's Australian Colonies, ia £13,000, as specified in Schedule D. Parts 1 and 2. In conformity with the 19th clause of the said Act, I shall make known by message, at an earlyperiod, tbe amount of sums intended to be appropriated to the several services named in Part 2 of Schedule D. I recommend an addition to be made to the salaries of the Judges, which will alter, without increasing, the total amount appropriated under the Act of Parliament, in Schedule D., Part 1 ; and this increase will be proposed to you in a Bill to be laid on your table. 4. Exclusively of tho above mentioned .£13,000, I recommend to the Council to appropriate £140,000 for tbe spacific purposes set forth in the estimates. Of this amount, public buildings, a new Council Hall, a lighthouse on Troubridge Shoal, city water-worts, roads and streets, hospitals, charitable allowances, administration of justice, police and gaols, and education, are estimated to require £108,0(10. 5. The lighthouse at Cape YVilloughby is completed, but awaits the daily expected arrival of a lantern from Englfind. This lighthouse, the first erected in the provincp, guiding wayfarers by sea from tbe neighbouring colonies to South Australia, may serve also as a memorial of tbe services of him who, as the discoverer of the River Murray, opened up a great inland water communication between them, and I have therefore named it "The Sturt Light." 6. When the details of tbe estimates of expenditure are before you for discussion, there will also be laid on youi table, for the like examination, the details of the estimated revenue. It is suffioient at present to state that the colonial revenue of 1850 exceeded the colonial expenditure ; and that the clear surplus balance at the end of 1851 cannot be estimated at less than £40,000. The import duties being by far the largest source of revenue, it is obvious that in this colony — where tbe rewards'of industry are ample, and, consequently, the ability and inclination to consume imported articles are great — the revenue is likely to augment in the proportion of the increase of the population. The past is an unexaggerated and moderate criterion by which to judgeof the probable results of the future. According to usu.il custom, I briefly mention some of the principal statistics of the colony during ihe last year. 7. The population of European descent on the olst December, 1850, was 63,700. The excess of immigration over emigration during the year, was 6137. The imports were in yulue £887,423, or about £13 18s. per head. The exports, £571,348 j or move than £8 19s. per bead. The population now exceeds 67,000. The places of worship in the colony are 102. Tho schools, 115. The convictions in the Supreme Court were 93!^^^ The convictions by the Police Commissioner an^^ sident Magistrate, 859. The export oC wool was 3,289,232 lbs. The export of copper metal was 44,691 cwt. Copper ore, 8784 tons. The tonnage, inwards and outwards, was 168,468 tons. The extent of enclosed land was 174,184 acres. The Crown land occupied by squatters was 15,317 square miles. The maximum annual rent has been fixed at one and one-half farthing per acre ; the minimum being one-half of the above rent ; and the medium rent, thp mean of these two rates. The General Colonial Revenue, inclusive of the balance of the previous year, and exclusive of the Land Fund receipts, was £178,726. Of this, the Customs produced ,£102,523 ; the duties on wines, spirits, and tobacco, amounted to £57,606. The General Colonial Expenditure, exclusive of Land Fund Expenditure, was £136,304-. The Land Fund receipts, including tbe balance of the previous year, were £111,467 ; of which £72,772 was appiopmted to immigration, and £20,000 to the liquidation of the Bonded Debt. The Land Fund Expenditure was £102,778. 8. In compliance with instructions from Her Majesty, 1 lay before you, together with tho estimates, an account of the manner in which the Land Fund is appropriated. The Act of Patliament for i egulating the sale of waste land within tbe colony, which places this fund at the disposal of Her Majesty, removes it from your controul; and this statement of Us appropriation is therefore made, not for tbe purpose of giving tbe Council a controul over the fund, or of inviting any interference with its application, but to keep you informed upon a subject of public importance; and to enable you to consider whether it may not be expedient to appropriate to the purposes of emigration, out of the •reneral funds of the colony, a sum equivalent to that portion of the Land Fund which is applied by Act of Paihament to other purposes than the introduction ot 'emigrants. 9 I lay be 'ore tbe Council a despatch from tho Secretary of State, already published in the neighbouiino- colonies, and in Parliamentary papers, notifyiii" °Her Majesty's appointment of a Governor-

General of Her Majesty's Australian Possessions, and oi a Captain-Geneial and Governor-in-Chiet of South Australia. I also lay over a despatch and a report of the Railway C ommihsionws on the subject of tbe 11 nl way toPoit Adelaide. 10. I have directed drafts of various lnws to be laid befbie you, winch appear to me desirable to intioduce ioi your consideration. It is not nect-^sary to advert specially to all of them} but, in their enumeration, priority is due to the question of the continuance of aid from the Public Treasury to the erection of Chustian Cliuicbes, ai.d to the support of Christian Ministers. This pieccdence belongs to it, not only because ot its intrinsic importance, but al«o on account ot its being but the pioposed renewal of an enactment to winch an expenence of three years, terminated on the oibt ot Jklaich last, was presenbed by law; and lastly, because the question would not now be in suspense, had not the former Council defined its solution to the then near appioach of that more popular Legislature which is now assembled. The fiugal maximum of £ I.jO for churches, and £200 for stipend, which maybe reached in either case only conditionally on pur ate contributions, at least of an -equal amount, seems to me to injure as large fin infusion ot the voluntary principle into the ecclesiastical system of all Christian congregations as the present circumstances of the colonists can bear; but it remains for you, if you see fit, to affirm the principle hitherto adopted, or to modify its application. There can be no doubt that, whatever be the measures taken on this most important subject, you will be guided only by a desire to establish the happiness and welfare of the community on the only sure foundation, by securing the diffusion among all its members of a Knowledge of the sacred truths of Christianity, and a sense of the responsibilities they impose. 11. The next draft law to be submitted to you has reference to tlia undertaking of the City of Adelaide and Tort Railway, at the expense, and for the benefit of, tho public ; and' is rendered necessary by the abandonment of the project by a pi ivnte company. •It appeals to me that there is no object on which, under existing circumstances, the actual surplus revenue of this year, and, if necessnry, some small part'of its accruing increase, can be more usefully expended than in the construction and maintenance of this railwny, whether regard be bad to its immediate advantages, or to the reproductive nature of the investment arising from the sure increase of passengers and goods traffic, and the consequent future reduction by Govrenment of fares and freights between the City and the Port. This Bill wrtllie presented to you in a form best calcuUted to expedite the commencement of the Railway undertaking, and to obviale for the future the delays •which have postponed, during the last eighteen month'!, tho opening up of this improved means of transit be■tween the City and the Poit. 12. The next measure to which your attention is invited, is that of the raising of a Loan of £.300,000 secured on the Colonial Revenue, to be expended, onethitd in augmentation of the Emjgiation Fund, and the remaining two-thirds in railways on main roads. The revenue of the colony can well -afford an annual sum, -equal not only to the paympnt of the interest of this capital, but also to its gradual liquidation even computing both these charges together at the unnecessarily Ligb estimate of 10 per cent. Indeed, the revenue could well bave borne such • charge from the time when, nearly three jears ago, I recommended this application of the credit of the colony to the procuring of funds for the construction of local improvements. Year by year, since then, an expenditure has been incurred under this head, and provision appears on the Estimate now proposed for 1852, equal to w hat our liabilities would be under the proposed loan. Railways once opened, would not only [substitute a convenient, punctual, and economical system in the place of the present inconvenient, uncertain, and expensive mode of transit, but they would, moreover, restore to a considerable extent \o pi-ivate employers the labour of many men and animals now engrossed by the constantly recurring and comparatively ineffectual repairs of the common roads. The tax paid by every department of industry be- i cause of the bad state of the common roads during a great pai t of every year, is so heavy as to be almost incalculable. 13. Bills will also be introduced to authoiise the employment on the public roads, under proper supervision of prisoners sentenced to bnrd labour for any period exceeding three months, at such places as may , from time to time be declared to be convict stations within the colony. To authorise sentences of imprisonment with haul labour for a term ofyeaia, instead of sentences of transportation. To confer on the Judges, severally, an extended juris- I diction under the Local Courts' Oidinnnce. To separate the functions of Police Magistrate from ! ■the duties of Police Commissioner. j To remove impediments to Distillation. | To provide for the creation of a Trinity Board at Port Adelaide, to regulate pilo's, lights, beacons, and buoys, and the Harbour Department generally. I As respects the project to supply the City of Adelaide with pure water, the requisite pecuniary provision wns voted by the foimer Council, is repeated on the present Estimates, and the Bill which was in Committee will be re-intioduced into the present Council as -a new Bill. The present system of registration of deeds is represented as wanting in those elements of simplicity and precision which are essential to its satisfactory working; and it has in numerous instances proved insufficient for the purposes of preventing fraud. You may probably deem it expedient to investigate the operation of the existing law, with a view to its improvement ; and to include within the scope of your enquiries other systems ' ■which have been adopted in some of Her Majesty's colonial possessions, as well as those which prevail on the continent of Europe. To facilitate the acquisition and transfer of landed pioperty, by removing any obstscles in the way of an ea*y, safe, and inexpenttive system, is a subject of deep impoit to the community, and I should rejoice if your enquines should tend to the promotion of so desiiable a result. A Bill will also be introduced to give, to a certain extent, an elective cbaiacter to the Central Road Board, and to extend the powers of the District Road Boards to seveial matters of local concern, viz., pound-, slaughter houses, depasturing of commons of hundreds, and lastly, although first in importance, the erection and maintenance of district school?. Applicable to this latter object, and in aid of local assessments, will be placed at the disposnl of the District Boards the revenue derived from the pastoral use of the Crown common lauds of hundred 1 ?, together with such other pecuniary aid as the legislature, on the merits of each case, shall be disposed to give to District Schools in addition to local contributions. I feel confident that it is but an anticipation of your own aspirations, when I invite you to illustiate the commencement of your legislative career by a practical recognition of the truism, that the powers of civil polity can never better permanently promote the greatest huppiness of the greatest number than by placing within reach of the whole people, unexclu-.ively, the means of having their childien taught and tiained in, at least, tbe elements of knowledge and of morals. The more perfect our civil liberty, the more necessary it is to provide for the removal of ignorance, and for the discipline of viitue. The child is father of the man ; and knowledge and virtue may, with God's blessing on education, be made to descend like an inhetitance fioin generation to •generation. 15. Gentlemen, before closing my first address to you in your new legislative capacity, 1 cannot refrain from reminding you how truly it has been said, that representative institutions are not unmixed blessings, nor 6elf-acting charms; their real value must depend on the wihdom and virtue of those to whom their administration is confided. In themselves, they can confei neither personal freedom, nor good government, nor national prosperity ; they are simply the means by which, under certain conditions, those signal advantages may be most effectually obtained. They are a spell of power— but not power for good alone — they afford the best field for the exercise o' all patriotic vntues, while they dispense •with none. lie who takes a share in the direction of the community, has not merely big own interests to consider, but the interests of his country and his fellowcitizens, even where these clash, or appear to clash, with his own. The very essence of patriotism is an unselfish lovo of justice. Let our peimanent and steady aim be to seek that popularity which follows, not that which is run after — that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pui&uit of noble ends by noble means. No other wish is nearer or dnaier to my ho art than that of realising such a cordi.il co-operation with you as way b ht conduce to the good of the publtc service. May my children and youis, whoso future lot in life is probably /ued in tho place of (heir nutivily, evei perceive that we lccogniie as tbe eswmal vitality of our political and social exigence a close conformity wi£h the

lofty ami disinteiested public spml wl ldi u> honoured im die Paient State. 11. E. F. Young. Council Chamber, Adelaide, August '20. His Excel encv having retiied, the preparation of tiit reply and the debate theieupon was postpone.} until the following day. I >p. i) reassembling, the Colonial Sccietaiy laid upon the table His Ivu-ellercy's financial minute, the supplementary estimates toy 1851, and the gemivtvl cst\uv.u<s 1852. Aso lour Hills :— - 1. To icgulate Internal Distillerk's. 2. To mci ease the Salanes of the Judges of the Supreme Court. 3 To cieato District Councils 4, To authouso appointment of undertakers for tt\e construction of the Adelaide City and Port Railway. 5. To amend an oidinance for the recov iy of Small Debts, andttial and punishment of Minoi Offences m South Austt alia, Alter the routine notices of motion, as to the business proceedings of the Council Captain Hagot ga\e notice of his inten ion to move the appo'iilmcnt oi a Special Committee to consist of fUe members of Council, to prepare a memori.d to Her Majesty, pnying for certain alterations hi Impciial Arts adecting the Administration of the Government, the contiol and disposal of the revenue and public funds, the togulation of the sale lauds, and those lelatmg to the appointment- of the civil seivice of the colony, and the i enervation of all Bills for Her Majes y's consideiation, Tbe gallant member also pave nonce that he should move for several statistical returns relative to the amount of immigration to the province. The reply to the Addiess, of which, s\s usual it was the echo, was moved by Major Campbell, and seconded by Mr. De\enpo«t. A long debate ensued; it being contended by honorable incmbeis that the .Addiess, containing: so many debateable matters, it would sniously compromise the Council to give the usual echo as a ieply to it. Mr. Dutton in p-utieular dwelt upon the unusual character of *ir Henry's speech. He said that all those who had been in the' ha) it ol leading Taihamentaiy repoits were awate that it was. usual ior Mm isters to bestow the utmost pains upon the composition of the Queen's speech, in order, as it appeared to him, that honom able members in Pailiament should not be able to lay hold of any one pait thcicof whereon to foil- d a point of attack on the Go\cmmeiit. His Excellency the Lieut. Governor seemed to have adopted another, although quite the reverse of the Parliamentaiy model, still with the view of prorfne-ng something of a similar iesult; for such wastuc multiplicity of subjects touched upon in his opening Address, that lion, members were almost overwhelmed with the task ol bringing them within the review of one day's debate. The following additions to the lcply weie pioposcaby Captain Bagot, Mr. Dutton, Mr. BaUer and Mr. Hull: -"ln'ieply to your excellency's jecomiuendation of the expediency of appropnating a poition of the geneial fund of the colony to the puipose of cmigiation equivalent to that poition of thi« Land Fuud which is applied by Act of Parliament to other purposes than the inttodnction of emigrants, the Council would lcspecfully observe, that in the 19th clause of the Act of Parlament (5 and 6" Viet., cap. 36), which provides for the appropriation of tie fund arising trom the sale of land it is directed that at least oue-haif of the gtoss proceeds shall lie applied to immigration. Tlie words «• at lemt" undoubtedly imply that a laigcr poition of those funds may be s,o applied ; and when it is remembered that the alteration made by the Act referred to from the provisions to that effect cntaincd in the 4th and sth ot Win, IV., cap. 95, by which the entire of the funds produced from the sale of land were directed to be applied to emigration, was considered neres'-ary, solely on the ground that at the tune the Act was passed the revenues of this province were u n, .ufticietit for its ordinary expenses, and it was deemed necessary to allow some portion of the land fund to be applied in aid of them ; that it is evident from the working and construction of the Act j that emigration was the principal object to which those funds wete to be applied, and that unless that portion of them which it, has hem the habit lately to designate as the Queen's moiety, is lequired to supply deficiencies in the general revenues for the ordinaiy expenses of the colony, they ought to be applied to emigration. The Council theieforc respectfully recommend to your Excellency theappiopriution of the entire nett proceeds of the sales of lam! to the purpose of emigration, before any portion of the general fund of the piovince be appiopu&tcd For that purpose. (2.) " While the Council is fully prepared to direct its particular attention to the all important subject of improving the internal communications or the Province it hesitates to expiess any opinion upon your Excellences startling proposition for borrowing large sums of money for that purpose. (3.) '* It is hoped that, in anticipation of the early consent of Hei Majesty's Government to place at the disposal of the Legislative Council that portion of the public revenue derived from the sale of tlie Waste Lands, His Excellency will nsceitain th- wishes ot the people, as expressed through their ■•ej.iesentativcs, before undertaking public works of any magnitude." These amendments were negatived, and the ieply, as originally propo ed, agreed ti> The pioceedings of the third day, co»sis'ed of merely business arrangements, as to the revision courts, boms o( attendance, &c