Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information

by Queensland

In 1881 fifteen Acts, exclusive of appropriations, were passed, among which were the Macalister Pension Act, authorising the payment to the ex-Agent-General of a pension of £500 a year; the Pearl-shell and Beche-de-mer Fishery Act; the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, and the United Municipalities Act. In 1882, with the exception of the Tramways Act, nearly all the measures passed were amending Acts.

In 1883 only two measures were passed—the Queensland Stock Inscription Act and an Appropriation Act—dissolution following upon the defeat of the Government on the second reading of the Transcontinental Railway Bill, which was introduced to ratify an agreement made with a company, represented by General Feilding, under the provisions of the Railway Companies Preliminary Act of 1880, for the construction of a railway from Charleville to Point Parker on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

THE NINTH PARLIAMENT: 7th November, 1883-4th April, 1888.

The ninth Parliament opened on 7th November, 1883, and the Government resigned after being thrice defeated. Mr. Griffith became Premier, and he at once set to work to reverse the policy of his rival in several respects. The Assembly passed a bill to repeal the Labourers from British India Acts of 1862 and 1882, but the Council rejected it. The passage of the Chinese Immigrants Regulation Act (introduced by Mr. Macrossan as a private Opposition member), which restricted the number of Chinese passengers arriving by any vessel to one to every fifty tons register, and imposed a landing fee of £30 per head on such passengers, had a salutary effect in limiting this form of Asiatic immigration. The Pacific Island Labourers Act Amendment Act further safeguarded the interests of white workers in Queensland. The Railway Companies Preliminary Act was repealed, and its repeal put a stop to the negotiations which had been going on in connection with the Transcontinental Railway under the previous Government.

The chief measure passed in the regular session of 1884 was the Crown Lands Act, which has been dealt with elsewhere. A comprehensive Defence Act established the principle of compulsory service in time of war. Among other measures passed were a comprehensive Health Act, a Bills of Exchange Act, a Wages Act, a Pharmacy Act, and the Native Birds Protection Act; also the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act. Many of the other Acts were legal measures, but one may be mentioned as of interest—the New Guinea and Pacific Jurisdiction Contribution Act, which provided for the amount of annual contribution by Queensland in the event of a British Protectorate being established over Eastern New Guinea and other islands in the Western Pacific. An Act of interest to civil servants was that which required all fees thereafter received by them to be paid into the Treasury. The Acts of this single session—the first of Mr. Griffith's Premiership—extended over 405 pages of the then quarto Statute-book.

The Officials in Parliament Act—passed to create an additional Minister, to readjust the division of portfolios between the two Houses, and to render officers in the Imperial and Queensland military and naval forces eligible to sit in the Legislative Assembly—had the effect of bringing about an innovation not intended at the time the Act was passed, and which had no parallel in parliamentary government in the Empire. The passage of section 3 involved the repeal of sections 5 and 6 of the Legislative Assembly Act of 1867, the latter of which made it obligatory for members of the Assembly to submit themselves for re-election upon taking office as Ministers. Curiously enough, the effect of this repeal was not discovered until certain Ministerial changes were made in 1893. The members of the McIlwraith Government in 1888 and the members of the Griffith-McIlwraith Coalition in 1890 went before their constituents for re-election; but since the latter year the practice has ceased, and the electors have now no opportunity of showing by their votes whether they approve or disapprove of Cabinet changes.

The session of 1885 was also productive of much legislation. There were a new Licensing Act containing local option provisions, a Federal Council (Adopting) Act, and an Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act, making the minimum width of new streets 66 feet, and of lanes 22 feet, and buildings were not to be erected within 33 feet of the middle line of a lane; while suburban or country lands could not be sold in areas of less than 16 perches. This measure put a stop to subdivisions which could only be regarded as a grave abuse. The law relating to parliamentary elections was consolidated and amended. Another Act prohibited the introduction of Pacific Islanders after 31st December, 1890. Altogether eighteen measures, irrespective of appropriations, were passed. During this and the following session a series of conflicts arose over the power of the Legislative Council to amend bills dealing with appropriation and taxation. In 1884 a bill was introduced which made provision for granting to members of the Assembly payment of expenses at the rate of £2 2s. per sitting day, with a maximum amount of £200 per annum, and in addition payment of travelling expenses to and from electorates once a year at the rate of 1s. 6d. per mile. The bill was laid aside by the Council. It was reintroduced in 1885, and again laid aside by the Council. The Government thereupon included a sum of £7,000 in the annual Appropriation Bill for the payment of members' expenses, and the Council took the extreme step of amending the Appropriation Bill by omitting this vote. After communications had passed between the two Chambers, it was agreed to submit to the Imperial Crown Law Officers two questions to settle whether the Council possessed co-ordinate powers with the Assembly in the amendment of all bills, including money bills, and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decided against the Council. The following year, the Members' Expenses Bill was passed by the Council without any attempt at amendment. The Council having also amended the rating clauses of a Local Government Bill in 1885, the bill was laid aside by the Assembly. It was reintroduced next year, and again amended by the Council. Warned by the fact that a Divisional Boards Bill had been laid aside by the Council because the Assembly claimed that the Upper House had no power to amend rating clauses, the Assembly accepted the Council's amendments, but at the same time asserted their sole power of altering taxation provisions.

In the year 1886 no less than thirty-two Acts, exclusive of appropriations and private measures, were passed. Among them was the Elections Tribunal Act, which gave to a Supreme Court Judge, assisted by a panel of members of the Assembly acting as assessors, the decision of election petitions, as the trying of such petitions before an Elections and Qualifications Committee consisting of members of the Assembly had proved unsatisfactory. The Members' Expenses Bill was also passed. The important Justices Act was a measure of this session. The Labourers from British India Acts were repealed, the repealing measure having been rejected by the Council in the 1883-4 session, thus closing the door to the long-desired importation of coolie labour for pastoral holdings. Two measures of great importance to workers which were placed on the Statute-book in this session were the Employers Liability Act and the Trade Unions Act. The Offenders Probation Act embodied a new departure in the treatment of first offenders, which has since been copied by many other countries. Another Act which proved of material assistance to the working classes was the Building Societies Act. Several of the measures were amendments of the work of former Parliaments.