HISTORICAL REVIEW OF VICTORIA. 



355 



of the donor of the thousand pounds, which gave the first impulse to the work of 

 exploring the interior. It was Mr. Ambrose Kyte, a self-made citizen of Melbourne. 



FROM THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR DARLIM;. 



The period during which Sir C. H. Darling represented Her Majesty in Victoria, 

 1863-1866, was an exceedingly troubled one, as it was that of an angry and protracted 

 conflict with respect to the future fiscal policy of the country, in which a majority of 

 the people and the Legislative Assem 

 bly espoused the cause of Protection, 

 while a large and influential minority 

 and the Legislative Council sought 

 to maintain that of Free Trade. A 

 Bill imposing numerous customs 

 duties of a protective character was 

 passed by the Lower and rejected by 

 the Upper House. The measure was 

 then tackecl on to the Appropriation 

 Bill, which was in consequence thrown 

 out by the Council. The Govern- 

 ment proceeded to collect the duties 

 on the authority of the Assembly, 

 and as no funds were available for 

 the Public Service, the Executive 

 Council, with the approbation of the 

 Governor, borrowed money from one 

 of the banks and confessed judgment 

 as often as the loan reached forty 

 thousand pounds. The collection of 

 customs duties on a mere resolution of the Assembly was pronounced by the Supreme 

 Court to be illegal, and in another session the Tariff Bill, severed from the Appropriation 

 Bill, was again passed by the Lower and again thrown out by the Upper House. A 

 dissolution followed, and the new Assembly numbered fifty-eight Protectionists to twenty 

 Free-traders. That Chamber for a third time passed the measure in controversy, which was 

 for a third time rejected. The Ministry resigned, and Mr. Fellows, as leader of the Oppo- 

 sition, formed an Administration and asked for a dissolution, but the Governor would 

 neither consent to grant it, nor to see the Chief Secretary. In the meantime the salaries 

 and wages of every person in the service of the Crown had fallen ten weeks in arrear ; 

 the late Chief Secretary, Sir James M'Culloch, had returned to office, and a third 

 session of Parliament was held, in which the Tariff Bill was passed through all its 

 stages, and sent up to the Council with a preamble asserting the absolute and exclusive 

 right of the Legislative Assembly to grant supplies. This was objected to by the Upper 

 House as inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution Act, and a con- 

 ference was agreed to, when, the obnoxious portions of the preamble having been 

 withdrawn, the measure was passed through all its stages, as also the Supply Bill, and 



THE GRAVE OF BURKE AND WILLS IN THE 

 MELBOURNE CEMETERY. 



