34 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT [PART I 
when asked to do so. The Governor was given by additional 
royal instructions of March 10, 1859, powers to remove 
members of the Executive Council, but he did not exercise 
them, and in the long run the result which has persisted to 
the present day was established, under which the Executive 
Councillors retain that position for life, but only the members 
of the Ministry of the day are normally summoned to the 
meetings of the Executive Council, though members can be 
removed, and have been removed, if their retention of 
the position would create a scandal. The idea of using the 
Council as a whole for any but merely formal purposes was 
discarded. On the other hand, the Major-General command- 
ing, who had the succession to the government, was allowed 
to retain a seat, though not a member of the Ministry. 
In the case of South Australia the same questions arose, 
but they were disposed of by the issue of a new commission 
under letters patent of February 22, 1858, which empowered 
the Governor to appoint members to the Executive Council in 
addition to those provided for in the Constitution Act, and 
to remove members; while on the other hand, the admini- 
stration of the Government was entrusted to the officer com- 
manding for the time being in South Australia. In Tasmania 
also the question of the Council was considered, but in that 
case the decision arrived at followed the model of Victoria, 
and not that of New South Wales and South Australia. 
In granting responsible government to New South Wales 
the Imperial Government expressly recognized that it was 
desirable to distinguish the case of the remoter parts of the 
Colony and to divide the Colony. The Imperial Act, 18 & 19 
Vict. c. 54, therefore contained power to the Crown to estab- 
lish a separate Colony out of the northern part of the Colony, 
and this was done, after petitions from the inhabitants and 
much discussion, by letters patent of June 6, 1859, which 
were afterwards confirmed by an Act of the Imperial Parlia- 
ment, as doubts had arisen as to the fact whether they 
strictly complied with the terms of the authority conveyed 
by the Act of 1855. The new Governor, Sir George Bowen. 
1 24 & 25 Vict. ¢. 44. The point at issue was the franchise.