THE CONSTITUTION STATUTE OF 1842 301 



devoted to the interest of the district under consideration. To 

 those six members there went very pointed instructions, from 

 Melbourne meetings and municipal conclaves, urging them to stand 

 firm in the expected contest. It should have tended to modify the 

 prevalent suspicion of Sydney that Sir Charles Fitzroy wisely 

 summoned Mr. Latrobe to take part in the conference while the 

 necessary local Bills were being prepared, and the Superintendent 

 remained in Sydney until after the prorogation of the Council on 

 the 2nd of May. 



When the " Victoria Electoral Districts Bill " reached the 

 Council, it was loudly condemned by the people most affected 

 by it ; but the faithful six, and a couple of local members whom 

 they had converted, were easily outvoted, and it passed into law 

 without any alteration. On the basis of twenty representatives it 

 allowed three members for Melbourne, two for Geelong, two for 

 the County of Bourke, and divided the rest of the colony into 

 thirteen single electorates. Three of these may be said in general 

 terms to be agricultural districts, the other ten were almost entirely 

 pastoral. These representatives, with the ten nominee members 

 to be appointed by the Crown, would constitute the first Legislative 

 Council of Victoria. The chief cause of dissatisfaction was the 

 neglect by the Sydney Council of the petition from Melbourne that 

 population should be the main basis of representation. Although 

 there were loud complaints that the Bill only gave Melbourne one 

 member for every 7,700 people, while a squatting district like the 

 Loddon had a member for 1,120 voters, there was really no in- 

 convenience experienced from the tentative classification. Long 

 before any difficulty could have arisen, even before the first coun- 

 cillors had well taken their seats, the great inrush of population 

 had commenced, which upset all previously formed estimates, and 

 necessitated far more drastic changes in the form of Government 

 than the mere allocation of representatives. 



Meanwhile, without any premonition of the impending changes, 

 the work of legal construction went steadily on. Efforts were made 

 by petition to get the principle of the ballot recognised in the coming 

 elections, but they were unsuccessful. Mr. Wm. Westgarth, who 

 had been elected to the Council in the place of Earl Grey, moved 



