36 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT [PART 1 
members of the existing Legislative Council should be 
replaced by an official nominee and three elective members, 
and that two unofficial members should be added to the 
Executive Council as in the case of Natal. On the grant 
of self-government the northern part of the Colony should be 
made a separate Colony under a Lieutenant-Governor. The 
question was again referred to by the Governor in a dispatch 
of November 18, 1886, when he was told in reply 2 that he 
should make it clear that the Imperial Government would 
not be prepared to surrender to so small a population the 
control of all the land in Western Australia. On July 12, 
1887,% the Governor reported a resolution passed by the 
Legislative Council in favour of responsible government. 
He defended the view, and gave reasons for holding that 
the Colony should not be divided as was suggested. The 
population of the northern districts had rapidly increased 
through the rush to the Kimberley goldfields, the people 
there were accustomed to self-government in the eastern 
provinces, and nothing less was at all likely to satisfy their 
demands. He recommended that provision be made for 
the natives by retaining the aborigines protection board 
which was instituted in 1886 under the sole control of the 
Governor, who should be entrusted with £6,000 a year for 
the benefit of the aborigines, and should control the protec- 
tors of natives and witnesses to native labour contracts. 
He recommended a nominee council, to be turned after a 
brief period into an elective body, and made suggestions for 
the Lower House being empowered to pass Bills over the 
head of the Legislative Council, after a delay of eight months, 
by a two-thirds majority, while on the other hand tacking 
should be forbidden. In a reply by dispatch on December 12, 
1887, Sir H. Holland explained the views of the Imperial 
Government : they thought that they could not surrender 
the territory north of the Murchison River to the responsible 
government which they were prepared to see established ; in 
the northern territory the lands must be retained in the hands 
! Parl. Pap., C. 5743, p. 11. ? Ibid. 
Ibid, p. 12. ! Ibid., pp. 23 seq.