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1. Responsible Government.—In 1855, when each of the colonies was engaged in framing for
itself its own form of government, Victoria, like all the others, chose the
English system of two Houses of Legislature. At first it was resolved that the
Lower House, called the Legislative Assembly, should consist of only sixty
members; but by subsequent additions, the number has been increased to
eighty-six: in 1857 the right of voting was conferred upon every man who had
resided a sufficient length of time in the colony. With regard to the Upper
House Victoria found the same difficulty as had been experienced in New South
Wales; but, instead of introducing the system of nomination by the Government,
it decided that its Legislative Council should be elected by the people. In
order, however, that this body might not be identical in form and opinion with
the Lower House, it was arranged that no one should be eligible for election to
it who did not possess at least five thousand pounds worth of real property,
and that the privilege of voting should be confined to the wealthier part of
the community.
Along with this new Constitution responsible government was introduced;
and Mr. Haines, being sent for by the Governor, formed the first Ministry.
Before the close of the year, the first contest under the new system took
place. Mr. Nicholson, a member of the Assembly, moved that the voting for
elections should in future be carried on in secret, by means of the ballot-box,
so that every man might be able to give his opinion undeterred by any external
pressure, such as the fear of displeasing his employer or of disobliging a
friend. The Government of Mr. Haines refused its assent to this proposal, which
was, nevertheless, carried by the Assembly. Now, the system of responsible
government required that, in such a case, Mr. Haines and his fellow-Ministers,
being averse to such a law and declining to carry it out, should resign and
leave the government to those who were willing and able to inaugurate the
newly-appointed system. Accordingly they gave in their resignations, and the
Governor asked Mr. Nicholson to form a new Ministry; but, though many members
had voted for his proposal, they were not prepared to follow him as their
leader. He could obtain very few associates, and was thus unable to form a
Ministry; so that there appeared some likelihood of a total failure of
responsible government before it had been six months in existence. In the midst
of this crisis Sir Charles Hotham was taken ill. He had been present at a
prolonged ceremony—the opening of the first gasworks in Melbourne—and a cold
south wind had given him a dangerous chill. He lay for a day or two in great
danger; but the crisis seemed past, and he had begun to recover, when news was
brought to him of Mr. Nicholson’s failure. He lay brooding over these
difficulties, which pressed so much upon his mind that he was unable to rally,
and on the last day of the year 1855 he died. This was a great shock to the
colonists, who had learnt highly to respect him. The vacant position was for a
year assumed by Major-General Macarthur, who invited Mr. Haines and his Ministry
to return. They did so, and the course of responsible government began again
from the beginning. At the end of 1856 another Governor—Sir Henry
Barkly—arrived; and during the seven years of his stay the new system worked
smoothly enough, the only peculiarity being the rapid changes in the
Government. Some of the Ministries lasted only six weeks, and very few
protracted their existence to a year.
2. The Deadlock.—Sir Henry Barkly left
the colony in 1863, and his place was immediately
filled by Sir Charles Darling, nephew of Sir Ralph Darling, who, forty years
before, had been Governor of New South Wales. Sir Charles was destined to
troublous times; for he had not been long in the colony ere a most vexatious
hitch took place in the working of constitutional government. It arose out of a
straggle with regard to what is called “Protection to Native Industry”.
The colony was filled with vigorous and enterprising men, who had come
to it for the purpose of digging for gold. For four or five years gold digging
had been on the average a fairly remunerative occupation. But when all the
surface gold had been gathered, and it became necessary to dig shafts many
hundreds of feet into the earth, and even then in many cases only to get
quartz, from which the gold had to be extracted by crushing and careful
washing, then the ordinary worker, who had no command of capital, had to take
employment with the wealthier people, who could afford to sink shafts and wait
for years before the gold appeared. These men, therefore, had to take small
wages for toiling at a most laborious occupation. But most of them had learnt
trades of some sort in Europe; and the idea sprang up that if the colony
prevented boots from coming into it from outside there would be plenty of work
for the bootmakers; if it stopped the importation of engines there would no
longer be any reason why engineers should work like navvies at the bottom of
gold mines—they would be wanted to make the engines of the colony. After a long
agitation, therefore, James MʻCulloch, the Premier of the colony, in 1864 brought a bill into the
Victorian Legislative Assembly according to which taxes were to be placed on
all goods coming into the colony if they were of a sort that might be made
within the colony. MʻCulloch proposed to make this change because it was ardently desired by
the working men of the colony, and these could by their votes control the
action of the Legislative Assembly. But the Upper House, called the Legislative
Council, composed of wealthy men, who had been elected by the wealthier part of
the community, thought, after careful decision, that any such plan would ruin
the commerce of the colony without much benefiting its industries. They therefore
rejected the proposed bill.
MʻCulloch tried to
persuade them to pass it, but they were obstinate. He then resorted to a trick
which is in itself objectionable, but which is perhaps excusable when the great
body of the people wish a certain thing and a small body like the Legislative Council
are resolved to thwart them. It is part of our constitutional law that all
bills dealing with money matters must be prepared in the Lower House; the Upper
House can then accept them or reject them as they stand, but is not allowed to alter them.
Now, once a year Parliament has to pass a bill called the Appropriation
Act, by which authority is given to the Government to spend the public money in
the various ways that Parliament directs. In 1865 MʻCulloch put the whole of the Protective Tariff Bill
into the Appropriation Act as if it were a part of that Act, though really it
had nothing to do with it. The Legislative Assembly passed the Appropriation
Act with this insertion. The Legislative Council now found itself in a most
unlucky position. If it passed the Appropriation Act it would also pass the
Protective Tariff Bill, which it detested. But if it rejected the Appropriation
Act, then the Government would have no authority to pay away any money, and so
all the officers of the State, the civil servants and the policemen, the
teachers, the gaolers, the surveyors and the tide-waiters, would all have to go
on for a year without any salaries. There was no middle course open, for the
Council could not alter the Appropriation Act and then pass it.
Whether was it to pass the Act and make the protective tariff the law of
the land; or reject it, and run the risk of making a number of innocent people
starve? It chose the latter alternative, and threw out the bill. The whole
country became immensely excited, and seemed like one debating club, where men
argued warmly either for or against the Council.
Matters were becoming serious, when the Ministry discovered an ingenious
device for obtaining money. According to British law, if a man is unable to
obtain from the Government what it owes him, he sues for it in the Supreme
Court; and then, if this Court decides in his favour, it orders the money to be
paid, quite independently of any Appropriation Act, out of the sums that may be
lying in the Treasury. In their emergency, the Ministry applied to the banks
for a loan of money; five of them refused, but the sixth agreed to lend forty
thousand pounds. With this the Government servants were paid, and then the bank
demanded its money from the Government; but the Government had no authority
from Parliament to pay any money, and could not legally pay it. The bank then
brought its action at law. The Supreme Court gave its order, and the money was
paid to the bank out of the Treasury. Thus a means had been discovered of
obtaining all the money that was required without asking the consent of
Parliament. Throughout the year 1865 the salaries of officers were obtained in
this way; but in 1866 the Upper House, seeing that it was being beaten, offered
to hold a conference. Each House made concessions to the other, the Tariff Bill
was passed, with some alterations, the Appropriation Bill was then agreed to in
the ordinary way, and the “Deadlock” came to an end.
3. The Darling Grant.—But, in its
train, other troubles followed; for the English authorities were displeased
with Sir Charles Darling for allowing the Government to act as it did. They
showed how he might have prevented it, and, to mark their dissatisfaction, they
recalled him in 1866. He bitterly complained of this harsh treatment; and the
Assembly, regarding him as, in some measure, a martyr to the cause of the
people, determined to recompense him for his loss of salary. In the
Appropriation Act of 1867 they therefore passed a grant of £20,000 to Lady
Darling, intending it for the use of her husband. The Upper House owed no debt
of gratitude to Sir Charles, and, accordingly, it once more threw out the
Appropriation Bill. Again there was the same bitter dispute, and again the public
creditors were obliged to sue for their money in the Supreme Court. In a short
time four thousand five hundred such pretended actions were laid, the
Government making no defence, and the order being given in each case that the
money should be paid.
In 1866 the new Governor—Viscount Canterbury—arrived; but the struggle
was still continued, till, in 1868, Sir Charles Darling informed MʻCulloch that Lady
Darling would decline to receive the money, as he was receiving instead five
thousand pounds as arrears of salary and a lucrative position in England. The
Upper House then passed the Appropriation Bill, and the contest came to an end.
4. Payment of Members.—But they had
other things to quarrel about. The working men of the colony thought that they
never would get fair treatment in regard to the laws until working men were
themselves in Parliament. But that could not be, so long as they had to leave
their trades and spend their time in making laws while getting nothing for it.
Hence they were resolved on having all members of Parliament paid, and they
elected persons to the Lower House who were in favour of that principle. But
the better-off people sent persons into the Upper House who were against it.
Thus for twenty years a struggle took place, but in the end the working men
carried their point; and it was settled that every member of Parliament should receive three hundred pounds a year. The two Houses also
quarrelled about the manner in which the land was to be sold; the Lower House
being anxious to put it into the hands of industrious people who were likely to
work on it as farmers, even though they could pay very little for it; the Upper
House preferring that it should be sold to the people who offered the most
money for it. On this and other questions in dispute the Lower House gained the
victory.
5. Exhibitions.—It was not till the
year 1880 that all these contentions were set at rest, but from that time the
colony passed into a period of peace, during which it made the most astonishing
progress in all directions. That progress was indicated in a most decided way
by the exhibitions held in the colony. It had from time to time in previous
years held inter-colonial exhibitions at which all the colonies had met in
friendly competition. But in 1880, and again in 1888, Victoria invited all the world to exhibit their products at her show. A
magnificent building was erected in one of the parks of Melbourne, and behind
it were placed acres of temporary wooden erections, and the whole was filled
with twenty acres of exhibits. A similar show, held in 1888, was much larger,
and helped, by its fine collection of pictures, its grand displays of machinery,
its educational courts, its fine orchestral music, and so on, in a hundred ways
to stimulate and develop the minds of the people. During recent years Victoria
has been very busy in social legislation. While enjoying peace under the
direction of a coalition Government with Mr. Duncan Gillies and Mr. Alfred
Deakin at its head, the colony has tried experiments in regulating the liquor
traffic; in closing shops at an early hour; in irrigating the waterless plains
of the north-west, and in educating farmers and others into the most approved
methods of managing their businesses. What is to be the eventual result no one
can as yet very definitely prophesy. But the eyes of
many thoughtful persons throughout the world are at present turned to Victoria
to see how those schemes are working which have been so zealously undertaken
for the good of the people.
Up till 1890 the progress of the colony was astonishing. Its central
half forms a network of railways. Its agriculture and its trades have doubled
themselves every few years; and though a period of restless activity and
progress was in 1890 followed by a time of severe depression, the community,
like all the other Australian colonies, has great times of prosperity in store
for it.
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