cHAP.1I] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 911 
ing which could not with any fairness be thrown upon the 
Imperial tax-payer. This agreement was carried into effect 
by the Queensland Act of 1887 (No. 9), which guaranteed the 
payment of £15,000 a year towards the cost of administration, 
and the territory was annexed in 1888! by Dr. (now Sir 
William) Macgregor, who was appointed to administer the 
island. The portion annexed represented the whole of the 
island, deducting the portions obtained by Holland and 
Germany. The Imperial Government, despite its desire to be 
relieved of the cost of government, gave no less than £52,000 
towards the cost of the administration, and the local revenue, 
such as it was, for a time returned pro rata to the contributory 
Colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. 
The Government was a curious one : in form it was a pure 
Crown Colony Government with a constitution given by 
letters patent of June 8, 1888, with a Lieutenant-Governor 
appointed by the Crown on the advice of the Secretary of 
State for the Colonies, and a nominee Legislative Council, 
while the Executive Council was composed in the usual 
manner of a Crown Colony executive. But as the Colonies 
were paying, the rule was that the Lieutenant-Governor 
corresponded with the Secretary of State through the 
Governor of Queensland, who consulted the Government of 
that Colony as to the policy to be adopted. It was not 
surprising that with limited means little could be done in 
the way of developing the country. When federation took 
place the Commonwealth was expected to take over the 
territory, and as a preliminary the Governor-General was 
substituted for the Governor of Queensland as being in 
control of the Lieutenant-Governor by letters patent of 
March 18, 1902, which also provided for the revocation 
of the letters patent of 1888 whenever the Commonwealth 
should be prepared to take over the territory. Meanwhile 
the Commonwealth appropriated a sum not exceeding 
£20,000 a year for the cost of government of the Colony, and 
in 1905 at last carried the Papua Act, which provides for 
a continuance of the old form of government substituting 
* Cf. Parl. Pap., C. 5564.