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I AND TASMANIAN:
OPEN TO ALL INFLUENCED BY NONE. This
Journal is published on the Evening of every;
Tuesday and Friday, and circulates extensively
throughout the Australian Colonies, India,
China, Europe, and America. It is regularly
filed at the office of Messrs Simmonds and
Ward, General Agents, Barge-yard, Bucklersbury
London, and at the Jerusalem Coffee
House < HOBART
TOWN:
FEBRUARY 8, 1848.' '
We consider it necessary to adopt the example of
, till the respectable Press, that all correspondents
shall make known to us (confidentially)
their identity, and that they shall invariably
(l ' be written in the correspondentialform. We
' do not identify ourselves with the opinions of
our correspondents: we only give them the
benefit of our wide circulation, reserving to
ourselves the right of giving our own opinions.
; upon the sentiments they propound in every
case. w i 3 The
mighty disturbance and embar-
rassment" (as it is termed by the Colonial
Secretary), which have arisen from the
" troublesome" '(another phrase of our " fat,
friend") Dog' Act, j' might bw Jibeen*v«?ry
easily avoided if t\m7mperMà#WawimW
Denison had. acted, with respect bAt obf
noxious law,! as |hjsjdaraentedspredéjiesso^
did. Sir Eardley Wilmot was toofehrewd
and too experienced a statesman to enforce
the provisions of a law evidently unconstitutional,
and he consequently kept them in
abeyance until the Act should be properly
and legally amended' The Imperator Maxi
must however, finding, as he stated in the
Council,"that'*'certain 'laws" had been
enacted, and were in force in the colony, it
was his duty, right or wrong, to have them
" carried out;" 'never for one moment anticipating
the "bother that such an Algerine
proceeding would produce. To work,
then, pat Imperator went, and with what
result the public Well know',
i Now, if Sir W. Denison had rested
upon his ears," until his Council had legalised
as far as they could, an illegal Act,
all would have been well or, if not well,
much better than it is now''. But, in
money was i enquired. did the Dog Tax would
have put some £3000 per annum in the
Treasury chest, at present empty. Money
was wanting, also, in Sir Eardley Wilmot's
time, but he was too well versed in the
business of his Govemment to tax the colonists
illegally; and he acted accordingly,
and with much and most unimpeachable
judgment. The Imperator seems determined
to carry on with a high hand, and sorry
are we to find that those who ought to be
friends of the people have now turned their
backs upon the colonists, and are " rowing
in the same boat with a Government which
has no regard whatever for the interests of
the people committed to their charge. In
proof of this assertion, we have only to refer
our readers to the proceedings of the Legislative
Council, as exemplified in the solemn
tar ce of legislation which has been enacted
within these few days.
It is at length most palpably evident that
this colony will never prosper until the
people have, not only a voice in its government,
but the will and the power to elect
their own representatives : the solemn farce
of legislation, which has been enacted in the
Council Chamber during the last week, has
plainly proved that the Government, as now
constituted, has but one object, namely, to
extort from the colonists as much money as
can be " squeezed" out of their pockets, and for
what purpose ? To benefit the public ?
To carry on local improvements in the towns
and districts of the territory, and, in a word,
to expend the money, thus "squeezed" in
accordance with the provident provisions of the
charter ? By no means ; but for the
purpose of bolstering up useless offices-by
providing large salaries for the Do-nothings.
The Government of this colony could be well
performed for less than one-half of its present
expenditure; when we say well performed,
we mean to the greater benefit of
the colony, and the better satisfaction of the
people : but now these sinecure appointments
lie like an incubus upon the colony,
depressing its energies and paralyzing its
exertions. What has been the principal
cause of the improper and blundering legislation
which has of late afflicted us ? What
the urgency of the enforcement of the Dog
Act of the Difl'erentiaKDuties Bill, dis-
allowed though it he Why Dr. Turnbull's
expediency and necessity, which rendered
imperative the payment of salaries in accordance
with Estimates, which are always
prepared " with a due regard to economy
compatible with the efficiency of the public
service !"
A remarkable fact connected with this
matter is this-that while the colony generally
has been considerably depressed, and
thus caused a, diminution of the revenue, the
salaries of the principal Government officers
have remained intact, and particularly those
of the appointees from England for this
the following reason has been assigned, and
it would seem recognised, namely, that
having been appointed by the Secretary of
State they have a " vested right " in their
offices, just the same as if they were patent
offices and thus they manfully stick to
their appointments, and pocket their salaries
with the utmost complacency..
There are many offices that might be at
once dispensed with, and several departments
that admit of much curtailment : the
Colonial Secretary's at least one-half; the
Colonial Auditor's might be broken up
altogether; so might the Colonial Treasurer's,
as the banks do all the business,
while the salaries of all above £200 or £300
should be reduced according to Captain
Swanston a plan, so much per cent. Instead
of this, the Estimates, which have been
prepared for the present session have been
so prepared, with care certainly, but not in
a manner consistent with the exigencies of
the colony. A paltry three-and-sixpence,
or half-a-crown, has been deducted from the
Sundays of certain messengers, and some
junior clerks have been dispensed with but
the great bulk of the oppression remains
without any attempt at removal. For
a better state of things we need not
hope so long as the present farcical form of
Government prevails ; we have only to obey
with the best grace we can so long as the
laws are tolerably consistent ; but when they
are decidedly repugnant to the law of England,
it is no less our duty than our interest
constitutionally to oppose their en-
forcement
. There is one point in the Governor's
address to his Council which savours strongly of
the lucus a non lucendo character : his Excellency
expresses with much naivete his
conviction of the necessity of establishing
" between the Government and the people
that mutual good feeling which is so essential
to the well-being of the community."
Now, ' no one will deny the, truth of this
axiom, for it is perfectly true that, unless
the Government go with the public, and the
public support the Government, discontent
and anarchy must prevail ; there should be
no antagonistic feeling, much less any antagonistic
action, and the medium movement
of a demonstration, even when imperatively
called upon, as very recently it has
been, shows very significantly that is. there
is something rotten in the, state of "-Van'
Diemen's Land. I, , st, nr , T ' ' '
As the Governor has expressed beacons
viction of the necessity of unanimity and
t>">>^ r 2 -at 777 "i ate??? is a' £ ~'*V">'
auramonSvhis\Council^'feeIing- as he does
that the relation between the Government;
and the people should be one of mutual
confidence and support, and opining that
the only legitimate mode of making known to
the community the objects and intentions
of the Executive Government is by the Legislative
Council. Here, Sir William is in "
error-great error: if this ^weretrue.^byv
the same parity of reasoning, would, the
Legislative Council by a legitimate and
proper means of communicating the wants and
wishes of the community to the Go- <
Government: (is this, however, the case ? By
no means : true, an hon. member may be
so kind as to present a petition, either from
the colonists at large, or from an aggrieved ris
and injured member of the community and AegJJ
this petition may be read, nay even it may
be actually received And what then s;
Why, consigned to the tomb of all the petitions,
that have ever been laid upon the
table of this hon. Council. Besides to petition
is completely to labour in vain, as the
public and Mr. J. T. Waterhouse have just
discovered ; there appears to be a snarling,
snappish opposition on the part of some of
the official members against even the idea
of a petition, and trivial technicalities have
been interposed to prevent any good effects
that might chance to result to the pe-
stationers.
No, Sir William, do not buoy yourself
up with the hope that your Council can
effect any mutual good feeling between the
Government and the community that
Council has lost entirely the confidence of
the colonists, and can never become the
means of unity and concord. That there
are good and independent members in the
Council is perfectly true ; from the present
aspect of our legislature, however, we augur
but gloomily of the future.
Well, His Honor the Chief Justice has
most manfully interposed between the
people and the ' Legislature. His Honor
maintains, and justly so, the rights of the
Supreme Court to annul the operation of a
law which may have been passed in repugnance
to our charter, and consequently in
repugnance to the law of England. In the
Council yesterday, his Honor moved the addition
of a clause to the Abolition Act, to
the effect that no retrospective operation
should take place in reference to the actions
now pending against the Government for
the restitution of monies alleged to have
been illegally collected. His Honor, as
will be seen by the report of the Council
proceedings, clearly proved the legality of
the judgment upon the Dog Act, and expressed
his opinion upon the hardship to
which the several plaintiffs would be subjected
should the retrospective operation of
the Act he affirmed and adopted. His address
to the Council vans replete with sound
reason, and, in our opinion unanswerable
argument. He clearly proved that the
Council was no Court of Appeal against the
judgment of the Supreme Court, which
must be held inviolable. If the Judges had
erred, they had so erred on the safe side of
the question ; but his Honor contended
that they had not ended, and that the Legislative
Council had no power to overrule
their decisions. He voted of course against
the Bill.
Now the Bill has passed and is at present
presumed to be the law of the colony.
The Chief Justice will of course protest
against it but then, it will be returned to
the Council, who will repudiate the Judge's
protest, and the Bill will be law for some
twelve months or so-" until her Majesty's
pleasure be known."
fellow-colonists ! Look at this awful
this fearful state of things! Laws are
passed and so passed in utter defiance of
the decision of the Judges, who are the
only safeguards between the Government
and the governed ! But how, may we ask,
will those laws be carried into effect, when
actions are tried before the Supreme Court,
when the Judges or at least one of them
may in accordance with Capt. Fenton's very
just remark be enabled to enquire strictly
and stringently into the positive operation
of that law ? Why, the whole matter must
lead to the greatest disorganization, and
cause a disruption in all legal, social, and
commercial affairs, which we dread to contemplate.
Yet the Governor's Council, with
a good deal of paltry " thimble rigging,"
have passed a Bill to abolish all doubts,
retrospective and prospective. Heaven only
knows what may be the fearful result of
such extraordinary legislation !
Failures Among other failures at
home, we notice that of Messrs. Scott, Belts
Co., who were agents for the Derwent
Bank, Hobart Town ; but we understand
that the bank has lost nothing by the failure.
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