Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/133

 The Legislators ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 107 should be learned. A public meeting five days later expressed satisfaction and gratitude for this action, which received the formal authorisation of the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the following year. The question of representative government does not seem to have been advocated as a grt;at principle by South Australians at this time, although the actual desire for a constitution had been in existence ever since the establishment of the Adelaide City Council. Occasionally the common sentiment found expression, and more particularly when the administrators pursued a policy opposed to the popular will. It would probably have been dangerous to have had a representative constitution during the administration of Captain Grey, but now both the population and the importance of colonial industries and progress warranted some change. Under an administrator so agreeable and penetrating as Sir Henry Young, the colonists would probably have been satisfied to go on as they were, but the time might arrive when a successor would not be so considerate of their views. During this administration two valuable institutions were established : a representative Parliament and municipal government. Though there was no popular clamor for a representative government, a new constitution was expected. The pojiulation of South Australia had reached the number (50,000) specified in the Act of 1834 for a constitution to be claimed. The British Parliament passed a new Act providing for representative institutions in the Australian colonies, and this reached South Australia in September, 1849. It authorised the separation of the colony of Victoria from New South Wales, and the establishment in each of the Australian colonies, which posses.sed a certain population, of a Legislative Council —in South Australia to consist of 24 members, 16 of whom were to be elected, and eight to be nominated. Power was vested in these Chambers to make laws, raise taxes, and appro[)riate public money, and establish district councils ; also to establish a General, or Federal, Assembly for the Australian colonies, and, with the consent of Her Majesty in Council, to alter the constitution of the respective Legislative Councils. The " General Assembly of Australia " was to consist of the Governor-General, and a House of Delegates elected by the respective Legislative colonies, two members being allowed to each colony for every 15,000 inhabitants. Under the clauses permitting the Legislative Council to alter the constitution of any particular colony, power was given to establish, by any Act or Acts, the bicameral system of a Council and a House of Representatives. South Australian.s, indeed Australians generally, were not favorably imj^ressed with the idea of a General Assembly. They opposed it because, to use the words of Mr. G. ¥. Angas, "the habits, disposition, social condition, and productions of each colony are so diverse, the distances so great, and the means of conveyance so few and inconvenient . . . ." They believed that it would endanger colonial independence, and, because the aggregate population was so small, that it would be impracticable to work out the scheme for 20 years to come. The federal idea was therefore quietly dropped, even though Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy was appointed by Her Majesty to be Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of South Australia, while Sir Henry Young was entitled Lieutenant-