being registered, a freehold of the clear value of £100 above all charges and encumbrances, or a leasehold of the clear value of £10 per annum, or a lease or license from the Crown empowering him, subject to the payment of £10 per annum, to occupy, cultivate, or mine on Crown lands; and who had occupied, for one year, as householder, a dwelling-house of the clear value of £10 per annum, or, as a lodger, a room or lodgings of the clear annual value of £10. Those persons were disqualified who had been attainted or convicted of treason, felony, or any infamous offence in any part of Her Majesty's dominions, unless they had served their sentences, or received a free pardon, or a pardon conditional on their not leaving the colony.
Part III. of the Act embraced the compromise. Six years after the first summoning of persons to the Legislative Council, or when the Registrar-General of the colony certified that the population, exclusive of aboriginal natives, had attained 60,000 souls, the elective principle was to obtain. The Council would still consist of fifteen members, and the colony was divided into five Electoral Divisions, each returning three members. The Electoral Divisions were:—
Members of the Council were to retire in rotation, the senior member for each division having to go before the electors every two years. Seniority was determined either by date of election, or, in the event of two or more persons being elected on the same day, by the alphabetical precedence of their surnames, and, if necessary, of their Christian names. The members of the elective council could elect their own President. The owners of freehold estates of £200 value, of leaseholds of £30 value per annum, of leases or licenses to depasture, cultivate, or mine on Crown lands, of £30 annual value; or the occupiers for twelve months of dwelling-houses valued at £30 per annum qualified for a vote in the election of the Council.
Under the other Parts of the Act, it was made lawful for Her Majesty to remove any judge of the Supreme Court upon the address of both Houses of the Legislature. In the financial sections it was provided that all bills for appropriating any part of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, or for imposing, altering, repealing any rate, tax, duty, or impost must originate in the Legislative Assembly, but that such appropriations must be first recommended by message of the Governor. The much-debated Civil List, for paying a sum not exceeding £9,850, provided for the salaries of the Governor, £4,000; Private Secretary, £300; Clerk of the Council, £250; Chief Justice, £1,200; Puisne Judge, £900; and five Ministerial salaries, £3,200. The annual pensions to officers who would lose their offices by the operation of the Act were:—Colonial Secretary (Sir Malcolm Fraser, K.C.M.G.), £700; Attorney-General (Charles Nicholas Warton), £333 6s. 8d.; Colonial Treasurer (Anthony O'Grady Lefroy), £550; and Surveyor-General and Commissioner of Crown Lands (John Forrest, C.M.G.), £500; total, £2.083 6s. 8d. But when any these officers accepted an appointment under the Crown in any part of Her Majesty's dominions, the allowance was suspended or reduced pro tanto, according as the salary of such appointment, added to such allowance, was greater than the salary of the office vacated in consequence of the Act. Provision was made, also, that the annual sum of £5,000 should be voted to an Aborigines Protection Board, and be expended in supplying aboriginal natives with food and clothing, in promoting the education of aboriginal children (including half-castes), and in assisting generally to promote the preservation and well-being of the aborigines. At the time when the gross revenue of the colony exceeded £500,000 in any financial year, an amount of one per centum per annum on such gross revenue was to be substituted for the £5,000. Finally, power was given to the Legislature of the colony to alter from time to time any of the provisions of the Act, and the new constitution was to be proclaimed and to take effect within three months of the receipt of official information that the Royal assent had been given.
It can be easily conceived that Western Australians hailed the change in their affairs with delight. For twelve months they had been in the place of a despised pleader for justice before a cold judge. Their moral character was attainted by the opposing counsel; their intelligence was impugned; and they were declared to be unfit to manage the property which was their birthright. But now judgment had been given in their favour, and they prepared to do credit to the estate that had been awarded them, to care for it like good husbandmen. In the past there had been practically no opportunity for local men to rise and assume that place in public affairs for which their talents fitted them. Under Representative Government a community might contain men of very superior intelligence, but they could never be proved. The local administration was made up of men sent specially from England, and Mr. John Forrest may be said to have been the only Western Australian who held administrative office for any length of time. Under the old system in the Legislative Council there was no scope for great attainments, and when a politician went out of the beaten track he was apt to be brought up sharply by the Governor's power of veto. Consequently, Western Australia had not yet, in a political sense, produced great men as such an expression as understood in other Australian colonies. The old constitution, also, did not tend to improve the character of the people. They were intermittently dissatisfied, and laboured under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that they were not receiving fair treatment from the Imperial Government. The Governor might be supposed to carefully guard his public utterances, so that he should find favour in the eyes of his master, the Secretary for the Colonies. There was a suspicion that the Administrator did seek to curry favour by such means, and colonists were not backward in making accusations. On the other hand, the people themselves sometimes resorted to the pernicious practice of seeking to bring the administration into contempt and disrepute to gain their ends. A dissatisfied man is not altogether a happy man, and unless he have an unusually wholesome character he will become careless, perhaps indolent, and improvident. The old system, as it worked in Western Australia, was calculated to do harm to the temper and character of the people, and, when objectionable restrictions were enforced, to cramp enterprise and the desire for betterment.
To Sir William Robinson was entrusted the honourable duty of inaugurating the new constitution. He arranged to leave England shortly after the Royal assent had been given, and extensive preparations were made to welcome him, not only because of his popularity by reason of his previous administrations and his earnest advocacy of autonomy when the Enabling Bill needed strong friends, but because he was the chosen ambassador from whom the colony was to receive its new constitution. People waited expectantly for all the excitations of the elections and of an administration to be
