Decemulr, 1912. 



history ot the (Vlonth. 



XCIX. 



Macquarie ; his secrttar\ , Mr. (.'aiiiplK.'ll ; ('aptaiii 

 Antill, ul tin- 73r(l Rcf^iment ; Lieutenant Watts, 

 of tlu: 46th ; Mr. Redfern (.surgeon), Surveyor- 

 General Oxley, Mr. I.ewin. a jiainter and naturalist, 

 and at Bathurst Plains lie was joined by Evans. 

 They arrived at the Plains on May 4, and stayed for 

 a week. .Nhuquarit; fixed the site for the townshi]), 

 and on Sunday, May 7, 1815, the ofticial oiH-ning 

 of the ro;id, and practically the foundation of 

 Hathurst, took place. In the following month the 

 Governor issued "a " Gazette " notice, commanding 

 those who had assisted in making the road to " aj)- 

 pear before him " at Eastern Creek stockyard, .and 

 grants of horned cattle were made to Thomas 

 Hohliy, Richard Lewis, Jol)n T\e. Thomas Gor- 

 man. William Dye, Samuel Freeman, Daniel Eyres, 

 J.imes Kelly, William Martin, Matthew Mucklow, 

 •ind Mrs. Green, widow of Thomas Green. Each 

 was ordered to bring his own branding iron, as the 

 ■ cattle were to come out of the Gmernnient herd. 

 The first grant of land grven in the Bathurst district 

 was to Maurice Charles O'Connell. of the it^t^ Regi- 

 nii-nt — 1000 acres, March 22. 1814. Mi. J. W. 

 Ashworth, a Yorkshireman, is the only surviving 

 memh-r of the first Bafluir.st Munici])al Council. 

 Ht" is 81 \>ars of age. and has known Batluirst 

 .since 184.:. 



The Commonwealth Governuieiu s 

 The Referenda new Referenda proposals are em- 

 Bllls. iKidied in six bills, the first of which 



was introduced last wo<-k by Mr. 

 Hughes. It consi.sts of two clauses: — (1) This .A<i 

 may Ik- citid as the Constitution Alteration (Tr.ide 

 and ConimiT<f), 1912. (2) Section 51 oi the Con- 

 stitution is altered — (a) by <jmitting from paragrajjh 



. (i) the words " with other countries and among the 

 States," and (b) by adding at the end of i)aragrapli 

 (i) the woicK " but not including trade and com- 

 merce ujxjn railways, the projx-rty of a State, ex- 

 cept .so far as it is trade and commerce with othei; 

 countries or among tiie States." Two of the suc- 

 ceeding bills arc to alter paragr.ijihs 20 and %•, of 

 section 51, " Powers of I'arlianvnt." The t)thers 

 are: — (i) To «n|)ower Parliamcni to make laws 



'with respe<-t to industrial disputes in rejation to <-m- 

 ployment in the State railway s<-rvices. (.•) To em- 



' jxjwer Parli.iinent to make laws with respect to 

 trusts, combinations and monoiMjIies, and (3) To 

 em[H)wer Parliament to make laws with resjiect to 

 ini.luslries and businesses de<dared to Im- the subject 

 of a mono|>(>lv. Paragraph 20 of the Constitution 

 relates to ' foreign cor|>r)rations and tr.iding cr 



financial corjwrations, formed within the limits of 

 the Commonwealth," while paragraph 35 limits at 

 pr<-sent the Commonwealth powers in industrial mat- 

 ters to the jiower to make laws with respect to " con- 

 ciliation and arbitration tV)r the prevention and 

 settlement oi imhistrial disputes extending beyond 

 the limits of am 'Hie State." The questions to be 

 ■submitted are materially the same as those embodied 

 in the previous Referenda. ' The mode of referring 

 them to the j^eople has been changed, and specilic 

 sfM'vices have Ixkmi .selected for exemption. 



In the last Referenda the issues 



Separate were submitted together. This time 



Issues. the proposed amendments will be 



sent to the electors as separate 

 issues. Presumably this may be taken as an in- 

 dication that the Government is anxious to carry 

 some if it cantiot carry all, and that it is not 

 desirous of risking another wholesale defeat. In 

 the proposed amendments this time State railways 

 are not to be aff<>cted by the trade and commerce 

 clauses, though under the industrial clauses control 

 is sought over railway ofiicials, and the control will 

 extend to their right to have their case carried over 

 the heads of the State Go\ernments to the Federal 

 Arbitration Coiut. The monoiwHes clause has been 

 |)riuied to exclude Commonwealth from the right 

 to take over any monoiwly that has Ijeen national- 

 ised bv a State or any public authority within a 

 State, such as a municipal body . This is an im 

 I)ortant concession to thos<- who stand for State 

 rights. Indeed, it is plain that the new amend- 

 ments have l)ecn drawn with the recognition that 

 tlie objections to the absorption of the powers of • 

 the States in matters which ha\e already become ■ 

 an essential object to State authoritv constitute the 

 chief danger in tlif w.iy <>l cirrying the Referenda. 



Lord 



Lord Chelmsford's announcement 



ot his retirement early next vear 

 Chelmsford's , , . . , t-. . /• .. ,„ ., 



„ ,, . roni he iK)Sition of State Governor 



Retirement. ^. '. , „. , 



in New .South Wales came as a 



great surjjri.se. There is still .some doubt in the 



public mind as to whether the official ex))lanation 



for the , retirement was not more dijilomatic than 



correct. Tlierc is an 'uneasy feeling that it had 



something to do with the difficultv which arose over 



the dis|x)sition of the l''e(leral Gov<-rnment House. 



He that as it may, the regret at tlie ai>jiro.iching 



d.-parture of Lord ChelmsfortI is universal and 



sincere. 'I'he Slate has nexer known a more tactful 



or iK)i)ular Governor. He has niadi- himself the 



