48 



AUSTRALASIA. 



rainfall have been followed all over Australia by 

 wive rains, and in this colony floods did 

 much damage. 1 111 migration almost ceased. The 

 revenue for 1889-'90 was 3,212,000. showing a 

 decrease of 403,000 as compared with the pre- 

 vious year, and the expenditure was 3,696,000, 

 an ini'ivuM- >!' 198,000. For the succeeding 

 \, ,u- tin- revenue was estimated at 3,609,000 

 in id the expenditure at 3,757,000. The deficit 

 tin 1 Colonial Treasurer proposed to meet by a 

 tax nf a penny in the pound on real and personal 

 property* and additional duties of 2s. a gallon 

 on spirits and 3d. on beer. These proposals not 

 receiving the support of the Assembly, the min- 

 i-try resigned and a new one was formed by the 

 leader of the Opposition on Aug. 12, consisting 

 of the following members : Chief Secretary and 

 Attorney-General, Sir S. W. Griffith; Colonial 

 Treasurer, SirT. Moll wraith; Secretary of Mines 

 and Instruction, W. 0. Hodgkinson; Secretary 

 for Railways and Postmaster-General, T. Un- 

 mack ; Secretary for Public Lands and Agricult- 

 uiv. A. S. Cowley; Minister for Public Works 

 and Colonial Secretary, Horace Tower; Minister 

 without a portfolio, Walter Horatio Wilson. 



Although the Premier questioned the right of 

 the signers of an appeal for separation that was 

 transmitted to the English Government to speak 

 for the whole population of Northern Queens- 

 land, the Governor, after visiting that part of the 

 colony, reported on April 18, 1890, that the north 

 is loyal and desires to establish a new colony 

 constitutionally, a considerable majority being 

 favorable, and what opposition there was spring- 

 ing from differences of opinion regarding the 

 site of the capital. The Separationists can only 

 appeal directly to the home Government, as 

 they are in a Parliamentary minority, and have 

 no prospect of obtaining a favorable measure 

 from the colonial Legislature No measure of 

 financial decentralization would prove satis- 

 factory. 



South Australia. The Governor is the Earl 

 of Kintore, who was appointed in December, 1888. 

 Th<- ministry at the beginning of 1890 was com- 

 posed as follows : Chief Secretary and Premier, 

 -I. A. ('oekl.urn; Attorney-General, B. A. Moul- 

 di-n; Treasurer, F. W. Holder; Commissioner of 

 Crown Lands, Thomas Burgoyne ; Commissioner 

 of. Public Works; J. H. Howe, Minister of Edu- 

 cation, J. H. Gordon. New elections for Parlia- 

 ment took place in April, when all the ministers 

 \svre returned, bat a majority was elected that 

 was opposed to thf progressive land tax that was 

 tin- chief featureof the ministerial programme as 

 presented at the opening of the session on June 

 "). Tli.- linaneial ivt urns for 1889-'90 showed sat- 

 isfactory elasticity in the revenue, which amount- 

 ed to 2,478,980, an increase of 176,000. The 

 expenditure was 3,404.17!). Railroad earnings 

 showed an increase of 120,000. A railroad has 

 lieen built from Port Darwin to the new mining 

 list riet of Pine Creek. Parliament considered a 

 bill for continuing t lie Transcontinental Railway 

 to the .Mel),, mi. ! range, and measures for en- 

 couraging agricultural, pastoral, and mining en- 

 terprise in the northern territory. The fiscal 

 scheme of Dr. Cockburn's ministry embraced 

 progressive duties on the value of inheritances 

 and testamentary bequests as well as a progress- 

 ive land tax in conjunction with the remission of 



the duties on tea, coffee, cocoa, and kerosene and 

 the reduction of that on sugar. On the defeat 

 of the ministry a new one was formed on Aug. 

 18, composed as follows: Premier and Treasurer, 

 T. Playford ; Chief Secretary, J. C. Bray ; At- 

 torney-General, R. Homburg; Commissioner of 

 Crown Lands, W. Copley ; Commissioner of Pub- 

 lic Works, W. B. Rounsevell ; Minister of Edu- 

 cation, D. Bews. 



Western Australia. Sir William C.F. Rob- 

 inson has been appointed Governor of Western 

 Australia to succeed Sir Frederick Napier Broome, 

 who, after filling the office to the great satisfac- 

 tion of the colonists, returned to England in 

 December, 1889. Sir William Robinson, who has 

 twice before been Governor of the colony, was 

 more recently Governor of South Australia, and 

 before the arrival of Lord Hopetoun was acting 

 Governor of Victoria. The people of Western 

 Australia, disappointed at the failure of the en- 

 abling bill before the British Parliament in the 

 session of 1889, redoubled their efforts to secure 

 a constitution in 1890. Not only did Sir Fred- 

 erick Broome leave before the termination of his 

 office in order to urge their case before the Gov- 

 ernment and Parliament of Great Britain, but 

 S. H. Parker, the leader of the elected members 

 of the Council, and Sir Thomas Cockburn-Camp- 

 bell, the chairman of committees, were dispatched 

 to England on the same errand. The colonists 

 had no need of a special charter, but were en- 

 abled, under the act that separated Victoria from 

 New South Wales and created or confirmed legis- 

 lative councils in the two colonies, to adopt re- 

 sponsible government and enjoy as full a meas- 

 ure of political independence as any of the self- 

 governing colonies, except in one important par- 

 ticular. The title and control of the Crown 

 lands would remain with the Imperial Govern- 

 ment. A large section of the British public ob- 

 jected to handing over to a few thousand colo- 

 nists all that remained of the Crown domain, the 

 patrimony of the British nation, particularly 

 since the tendency has been developed in Aus- 

 tralia to accumulate great masses of land in the 

 hands of land kings and speculators. The colo- 

 nists protested that there was as good reason to 

 intrust them with full control within the colonial 

 boundaries as there was to give the Queens- 

 landers full possession of a territory relatively 

 as great, that they had already for many years 

 past practically managed all the land of the col- 

 ony without interference in a manner to which 

 no reasonable exception could be taken, and that 

 the best land and the only region suitable for 

 European settlement they would have in any 

 event, the rest being mainly spinifex desert. 

 Their English critics pointed to the way in which 

 they treated the pearl-fishing fleets, in which 

 British capital was invested, charging duties on 

 all their supplies and an export duty of 4 a 

 ton on the shells, on which they took off half the 

 export duty. Seeking to please both sides, the 

 Government, in the bill that was brought in, left 

 the colonists the whole of the southern and tem- 

 perate part of the colony, while reserving for 

 imperial control the larger section lying north 

 of the 26th parallel of latitude. The bill also 

 provided that the British Parliament might veto 

 any act of the colonial Legislature the effect of 

 which would exclude immigrants. The reserved 



