RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT [PART I
elected and one-third nominee members set up in that year
exercised the power of creating two houses accorded them
in 1850 by a local Act, and with the royal assent to that
Act the principle of responsible government was formally
introduced in 1855. In the case of Victoria, which was part
of New South Wales until 1850, the Act of that year created
a legislature of the same type as that subsisting in New
South Wales, and that body likewise exercised the power
of creating a Parliament with two chambers by a Bill which
was confirmed by an Imperial Act, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 55.
Queensland, also a part of New South Wales, received a
constitution of the usual bicameral type in 1859, with
responsible government forthwith. South Australia has
a separate history: originating in 1834 as an experiment
in free settlement, it was governed by a nominee Council
from 1836 up to 1851, on which date it possessed under the
authority given by the Imperial Act of 1850 a Council of
twenty-four members, one-third only nominee, while in
1855-6, by a further exercise of the power given by the
Act of 1850, the Legislature was reconstituted on the usual
bicameral lines and responsible government came into force.
In Western Australia a nominee Council existed in virtue
of various Imperial Acts until 1868, when a representative
element was introduced, and in 1870, in virtue of the Imperial
Act of 1850, the Council became elective as to two-thirds
of its numbers. In 1889 the Council passed an Act establish-
ing an ordinary bicameral constitution, which was confirmed
by an Imperial Act of 1890, and responsible government
became a fait accompli.
In the case of New Zealand there was little real organiza-
tion of government until, by an Imperial Act of 18401 a
Crown Colony form of Government was instituted. Natur-
ally that did not in any way please the people there, and
an Imperial Act of 1847 2 was intended to create an elaborate
form of government with a central Legislature, which should
be representative, and a number of provincial Councils also
representative, but the members of the Councils were to be
1 3 & 4 Vict. c. 62. * See Henderson, Sir George Grey, pp. 121 seq.
