THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 51 



him to draw up a bye-law for the prevention of accidents from 

 the removal of gunpowder in too great quantities. Field at 

 once drafted a proclamation embodying the English law on 

 the subject, and this was issued by the Lieuten ant-Governor. 

 So soon as Macquarie saw it, he wrote a letter of rebuke to 

 Erskine, and on his return to Sydney recalled the proclamation 

 by means of a Government Public Notification. 1 He did this 

 without consulting his judicial officers, and in very clumsy style. 

 " His Excellency the Governor," ran the notice, " from due 

 consideration of the Powers and Authority vested by His 

 Majesty in him solely, as Captain-General and Governor-in- 

 Chief of this Territory and its Dependencies, has deemed it 

 fitting and necessary ... to declare and notify. And he does 

 hereby make this public declaration and notification that the 

 said Proclamation so issued and published, during His Ex- 

 cellency's late Public tour of inspection in the Southern part 

 of this Territory ... is wholly without force and authority." 



" Fortunately," wrote Field to Lord Bathurst, " the private 

 understanding between Governor Macquarie and Lieutenant- 

 Governor Erskine was too good to permit a quarrel between 

 them ; but as this may not be the case with a future Governor 

 and Lieutenant-Governor, I have thought it my duty to submit 

 this question of authority to the decision of your Lordship." 2 



Field's legal opinion was that when the Governor " absents 

 himself from the seat of government thither (Van Diemen's 

 Land), but leaves the Lieutenant-Governor of the Territory of 

 New South Wales ... to administer the Government in his 

 own name, and allows the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's 

 Land to administer that Government in his own name, it 

 amounts to an ' absence out of the Territory and its Depend- 

 encies '. . . so that the Lieutenant-Governor has then the 

 power by his commission, even with no more oaths than those 

 originally taken, to do whatever is necessary to carry on the 

 Colonies both of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. 

 ... If nobody is authorised to make any law or regulation 

 while the Governor is at sea within the Territory, how long 

 is New South Wales to wait without necessary Laws and 



1 S.G., I4th July, 1821. 



2 Field to Lord Bathurst, ist August, 1821. R.O., MS. 



