CHAP. 1] ORIGIN AND HISTORY 39 proceeded to deluge the Colonial Office with representations in favour of the grant of self-government and the control of the waste lands, and the Government of Western Australia sent home, at their suggestion and that of the Colonial Secretary, a deputation consisting of Mr. Parker and Sir T. Cockburn Campbell ; while Mr. (now Sir John) Forrest was deputed to go to the Eastern States, a deputation not approved by the Secretary of State! The Bill was in 1890 introduced again into Parliament and referred to a select committee, who heard the views of persons interested, including the deputa- tion and the Governor? and the Bill finally became without serious alteration an Imperial Act, 53 & 54 Vict. c. 26, whereupon responsible government was at once introduced. In the case of New Zealand the proceedings were some- what peculiar. The House of Representatives, which was constituted by the Act of 1852, proceeded at once, when it met in June 1854, to consider the question of responsible government, and ended with presenting an address on June 6 to the officer administering the Government ask- ing that ministerial responsibility should be established in the conduct of executive and legislative proceedings by the Government as an essential means by which the general Government could exercise a control over the pro- vincial Government, and as a no less indispensable means of obtaining for the general Government the confidence and attachment of the people. In this position, Lieutenant- Colonel Wynyard, who was administering the Government in the absence of Sir George Grey, consulted his Executive Council, which consisted, as under the old scheme, of perma- nent officers, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, and the Treasurer ; and he was advised by them that he could not properly do anything which would result in the adoption of full responsible government without the approval of the Home Government. The Attorney-General advised that the Act of 1852 contained no reference to the adoption of constitutional government, and that indeed the provisions for the reference of laws to the House of the Legislature for * Parl. Pap., C. 5919. 2 Tbid.. H. C. 160, 1890.