Ileinew of Reviews. 1/11/06. 



Our Unwieldy States. 



453 



This must be due either to inadequate pohtical 

 Icnowledge, or want of foresight, or from a feeling 

 that it is a difficult and embarrassing problem, 

 which should be left alone in the absence of any 

 popular demonstration, or from a conviction that, 

 while the State capitals continue, as they do, to 

 overshadow and control, and hold in subjection 

 the rest of the country, it would be a hopeless task 

 to attempt to secure a division of the larger States. 

 It is, however, a problem that must come up for 

 solution before very long, and more especially in 

 the case of Northern and Central Queensland. 

 These two' enormous divisions of Queensland -the 

 former embracing 250,000 square miles of territory, 

 and the latter 210,000 square miles — had been 

 petitioning the Crcrwn for separation from Southern 

 Queensland for many years prior to Federation. 

 The replies of two Secretaries of State to our 

 Envoys were distinctly to the effect that, failing 

 some such settlement as that proposed by Sir S. W. 

 Griffith, the qiue.stion would be considered " whether 

 the time has not arrived at which the great colony 

 of (Queensland must be separated into three " (v/de 

 Times Rrport, May 7th, 1802). 



In order to prevent territorial separation. Sir S. 

 W. Griffith, then Premier of Queensland, in 1890, 

 and again in 1891, brought forward proposals for a 

 tripartite federative division of Queensland, and, 

 with the view that the three Queensland provinces 

 so to be created would merge into the larger Aus- 

 tralian Federation, when consummated, as three 

 separate States. These proposals were cordially 

 supported by the late Sir Thomas Mcllwraith, who 

 pronounced them to be wise and philosophic. At 

 the Federal Convention in 1891, Sir Thomas said: 

 — " In Queensland we are on the eve of dividing 

 the colony, if we can, into three parts. We shall 

 require some guarantee that Queensland is going to 

 be recognised as three provinces in this new Fede- 

 ral Govenunent." Manv people in Central Queens- 

 land voted for the Commonwealth Bill on the assur- 

 ance of some of its advocates that satisfactory pro- 

 \-ision had been made for the division of Queens- 

 land. Unfortunately this is not so. In my opinion 

 the people of Queensland were very short-sighted 

 and very unwise in agreeing to the unconditional 

 incorporation of their huge and unwieldy colony as 

 one State, with miserably inadequate representa- 

 tion. Certainly the Federal Constitution makes 

 pro\ision for admission of new States, but the con- 

 ditions are very difficult, if not impossible, to comply 

 with. Had a similar provision been embodied in 

 the Con.stitution of New South Wales (as was at 

 first propose-d by the late W. C. Wentworth), 

 Queensland would not have been able to secure 

 her legislative independence, except perhaps In- 

 extra constitutional means. The subject of division 

 is quiescent at present in both Northern and Cen- 

 tral Queensland, but I venture to predict that it 



will not be very long before Northern Queensland 

 will realise the vital and absolute necessity of hav- 

 ing the management of her own affairs, and will 

 resolutely demand autonomy, and admission as a 

 separate State of the Union ; and Central Queens- 

 land will almost certainly follow suit. Both these 

 embryonic States have much larger populations (the 

 North about 115,000, and the Centre 65,000) than 

 that of all Queensland in 1859, and they are far 

 more advanced in every respect. Why, therefore, 

 should they not have the management of their own 

 affairs, as separate States of the Union? A good 

 deal of ignorance or misconception prevails respect- 

 ing this question. If you talk to the politician 

 about the necessity, in the interests of good govern- 

 ment, of dividing Queensland, he usually displays 

 an utter lack of interest, and is inclined to regard it 

 as an unreasonable, if not absurd, proposition. The 

 stock argument usually advanced as a clincher is 

 '"Oh, look at your population; it is not large 

 enough,'' utterly ignoring the fact that the popula- 

 tion of all Queensland at the time of separation in 

 1859 was not more than 25,000, and that it does not 

 require any particular number of people to form a 

 self-go\erning community. Very few persons appear 

 to be aware of the fundamental principles by which 

 in the earlier days of colonisation colonies, by 

 settlement, were enable I to manage their ow-n 

 affairs. Their right to munage their ow-n affairs 

 was inherent in the colonists by virtue of the com- 

 mon law which they carried with them. The acts 

 of the Sovereign in issuing a proclamation in divid- 

 ing the colony into electoral districts, in calling 

 for the return of representatives, simply discharged 

 a constitutional duty, which preserved to the people 

 who had hived off from the parent State, or colony, 

 those constitutional rights which belonged to them 

 as Englishmen, and without which the laws and 

 institutions of England would not accompan\ them. 

 It has been pointed out by competent authority that 

 these features of our constitutional system have 

 disappeared in England, and the Treaty of Union 

 between England and Scotland, and the Act of 

 Union with Ireland, have made the exercise of this 

 prerogative in Great Britain and Ireland no longer 

 possible, but the prerogative has not perished in 

 other parts of the Empire. It has accompanied 

 Englishmen wherever the sovereignty of the Crown 

 has been established by a settlement of people 

 enjoying common law rights. This constitutional 

 doctrine was well stated by Mr. Justice Willes in 

 the case of Phillips v. Eyre. 



This great principle of self-government has been 

 ignored and overridden by the rigid and restric- 

 tive provisions respecting the creation of new States 

 embodied in the Federal Constitution. The people 

 who, like those of Northern and Central Queens 

 land, have settled and subdued the wilderness and 

 laid the foundations of new and self-supporting 

 communities, have been deprived bv the Federal 



