INDEPENDENCE OF VICTORIA
Source.—Port Phillip Gazette
In 1844 New South Wales (including the Port Phillip and Moreton Bay districts) was granted representative government, but the distance between Sydney and Melbourne and the disproportion of representatives made it a farce as far as Port Phillip was concerned. Melbourne proceeded to demonstrate to the British Government the necessity for Separation. Victoria was established as a separate colony in 1851.
Jan. 3rd, 1848. The Separation Dispatch.—To such writers as cannot comprehend the policy of the Russell administration, it is common to decry everything which they have attempted, as stupid and impracticable; but we, who deem ourselves wiser in our generation, view their conduct in a very different light, and give them credit for no ordinary talent; great energy, and more perseverance in our affairs, than can be, under existing circumstances, ascribed to any Ministry in our
day. They took office at a period of great political excitement, and still they have devoted much attention to Colonial interests; and they have extraordinary claims upon our beloved Victoria, having granted us that boon we long demanded in vain from former Ministers.
The Dispatch officially announces that Earl Grey is to bring in a Bill for the Separation of this, from the Middle District at last, and that we will form a Colony of our own, under the new name of Victoria. The Constitution of this Colony will to some extent be identified with those of the other Australian Colonies.
At present, Earl Grey has put forth simply the general principles; the details, he says, will form matter for serious consideration and anxious deliberation.
We anticipate some of the Sydney papers will be coming out with a cart-load of nonsense; running down Earl Grey's plan, but we will defend it from their senseless and ignorant declamation.
Monday, July 10th, 1848. Political Gazette. The Elections.
Our readers must be aware that the writs for the election of members to serve in the new Legislative Council of the Colony of New South Wales, have been issued, and that his Worship the Mayor of Melbourne will hold a meeting of the electors of the City of Melbourne, in front of the Supreme Court House, La Trobe St. on Tuesday, 25th day of July, for the nomination of a member to serve in said Council for the Electoral District of Melbourne.
Wednesday, July 19th, 1848. The Elections.
The outrageous attempt to thrust Mr. Adam Bogue upon the District, as one of our members for the Legislative Council, has displayed that we are looked upon as a refuge for the destitute; and that the opinion of Port Phillip in Sydney is, that any beardless boy without name, character, or property may be raised upon our shoulders into an office of great influence, and almost supreme importance.
We have the welfare of the district sincerely at heart, and we advise the electors to return no members from Sydney. Let them nominate Port Phillip men and Port Phillip residents whether they can go to Sydney or not. We entreat the electors not to be made the instrument of destruction to themselves; let them not elect Sydney members to plunder Port Phillip.
Electors, place five Port Phillip men in nomination, and one half of them may go up to Sydney, who would be worth a thousand Sydney Adam Bogues.
Remember that the nomination will take place to-morrow, opposite the Court House at noon. We have no wish to treat the pretensions of any person who comes forward as a candidate for a public office with disrespect; but we cannot regard the attempt of a young man of neither standing nor capital to thrust himself into the Legislative Council on Port Phillip influence, other than a piece of impertinence. We should, however, have passed it unnoticed, had not this very same person
insulted every man in this Province so recently, by endeavoring to throw Port Phillip out of the line of steam communication with England—when Port Phillip wanted a friend he gave her a kick, and this should have been the last district for Mr. Bogue to make an offer of his services to.
Wednesday, July 26th, 1848. To-day's Election.
We approved of the principle of returning no members for the Legislative Council (so far as the District was concerned) and we regret that an attempt is about to be made to overthrow these proceedings, by returning a Member for Melbourne in the person of J.F.L. Foster, Esq.
This is a question upon which, we are aware, some difference of opinion exists; but, having commenced the principle, so far as the District is concerned, we ought to carry it out; if we act otherwise it will be thrown in the teeth of the citizens of Melbourne that they disfranchised the District and then returned a Member on their own account to represent their city.
There required, however, to be unanimity to accomplish this, and some of the electors having proposed Mr. Foster as a fit and proper person to represent the City; those who were in favour of carrying out the principle already adopted at the District Meeting, had nothing left but to bring forward an opponent to Mr. Foster, and in the person of the Right Hon. Earl Grey has this opponent been found.
True, did the City wish to send a practical man, we are willing to accede that Earl Grey is not in a position to sit and work for us in the Council, but we wish, by electing a man who cannot act, at any rate for eighteen months, to carry out the principle which the Electors of the District have already agreed to be correct; we deem it then the duty of every honest man in this community to give his vote to Earl Grey, not so much out of respect for His Lordship, as to carry out
a principle; a principle to which we consider the honor of Melbourne to be pledged.
Mr. Foster is, no doubt, a very excellent kind of man, but having been withdrawn by his friends, on the morning of the District Election, we must look upon him as shelved for the present. Let us then return Earl Grey as one member, and it may do us more good than we can well conceive at present, as it will give His Lordship a practical illustration of our helplessness, and thus hasten on Separation.
Hasten then, electors to the poll! and record your vote in favour of Earl Grey and SEPARATION!!
The Poll commences at Nine o'clock this morning.
Saturday, July 29th. Domestic Gazette. Election of a Representative for the City of Melbourne.—On Wednesday last, no little commotion was created by the election of a member (nominally) to represent the interests of the Citizens of Melbourne in the Legislative Council, but the thinking portion of the community having arrived at the conclusion that representation in the Legislative Council at Sydney, under existing circumstances, was a farce, had determined, virtually, upon
adopting a similar course to that pursued at the nomination of Candidates for the District, and the Right Hon. Earl Grey was consequently proposed as a fit and proper person to represent our interests in the Legislative Council, and this proposition, with two or three exceptions, met with unanimous approval at the meeting. After the first hour's polling, it was clear that Mr. Foster had no chance, and as this became more and more apparent as the day advanced, some hundreds of
voters who had intended to support the favorite were deterred from doing so under a conviction that their votes would not be required, and the unfavorable state of the weather counteracted the desire to be present at the scene of action. It was understood that the Mayor would, on the following day, declare on whom the election had fallen, and at noon, many hundred persons and, notwithstanding the still unfavorable state of the weather, assembled outside the supreme Court
House, and a few minutes afterwards the excellent Band of the Total Abstinence Society, might be seen wending their way to the spot, headed by Mr. J.P. Fawkner.
The Mayor addressed the Meeting as follows:—"Gentlemen, I have called you together again for the purpose of declaring on whom the late election has fallen, but previously to doing so I will read two protests, one of which has been sent to a deputy returning officer, and the other to myself." His worship then read the protests, which are as follows:—"I, the undersigned burgher of Bourke Ward, do hereby protest against the Returning Officer receiving any votes for the Right
Hon. Earl Grey, on the following grounds:
"First, that Earl Grey as a Peer of the British Parliament cannot hold a seat in a Colonial House of Legislative Representation.
"Second, That he cannot move Her Majesty in two distinct Legislatures.
"Third, That he is not qualified according to the Act.
"Fourth, That he is an absentee, and there is no one present to represent him—to state that he will sit if elected.
(Signed) "Sidney Stephen, Barrister-at-law."
The Mayor remarked that these protests were very respectably signed, and were deserving of attention, but although they were signed by numerous lawyers he believed he was relieved of all difficulty on the subject by being guided by the 96th clause of the Constitutional Act which rendered it imperative that all complaints of this nature must be addressed in the form of a petition to the Governor and must be addressed by one of the candidates, or one-tenth of the whole of the
electors. Several other authorities were then referred to by His Worship, who expressed himself thoroughly satisfied as to the course he ought to pursue, and announced the following as the final state of the Poll in the Respective Wards.
|
WARDS |
GREY |
FOSTER |
|
Gipps Ward |
50 |
17 |
|
La Trobe Ward |
102 |
15 |
|
Bourke Ward |
43 |
32 |
|
Lonsdale Ward |
100 |
28 |
|
|
295 |
92 |
|
|
|
|
leaving a majority for Earl Grey of 203, who was declared amidst enthusiastic cheering, to be duly elected as a member of the Legislative Council for the Electoral District of the City of Melbourne.
A Source Book of Australian History, 1919 |
