21st November 1877.
January 12, 1878.
Address from the Legislative Council to His Excellency the Governor.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE FERGUSON BOWEN, KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE, and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of Victoria and its Dependencies and Vice-Admiral of the same, etc.
May it please your Excellency,
We her Most Gracious Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the members of the Legislative Council of Victoria, in Parliament assembled beg leave to approach Your Excellency with renewed assurances of unabated loyalty to Her Majesty's Throne and Person.
We desire to draw Your Excellency's attention to the answer given by the Hon. the Post-Master General during the sitting of the Council on the 1st instant to the question put by one of our members, viz.:—Whether it is the intention of the Ministry to afford this House the opportunity of considering the propriety of renewing or discontinuing the payment of members of Parliament by submitting the measure by Bill as heretofore.
The answer was as follows:—In reply to the Hon. Member the Cabinet desire me to state that it is unusual and inexpedient to state the intention of the Government otherwise than by the due presentation of business to Parliament; but in this instance there is an additional serious objection to the question of the hon. member. It deals with the appropriation of revenue which is the exclusive privilege of the Legislative Assembly, and it is highly undesirable that the Legislative Council should interfere even by a question with appropriation, the initiation of which is by message from the Crown, on the advice of the responsible Ministers and is further controlled by the exclusive privileges of the Assembly.
This being the opinion of Your Excellency's advisers, were we to continue silent it might with some show of reason be inferred that we were satisfied with the answer of the Government, and would accept their dictum as representing the true position of the matter as between the two Chambers.
We have thought it incumbent upon us to lay before Your Excellency the following circumstances connected with the question of payment of members:—In the session of 1860-1, a separate Bill for payment of members was introduced into the Assembly, but was lost in the Council. In the session 1861, Sir Henry Barkly, who was then Governor, was warned by the Legislative Council of the inevitable consequences of a sum being included in the annual Estimates of Expenditure for the compensation of members of Parliament, and the objectionable item was not included in the Estimates for the year when laid before the Assembly that session.