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.
