CHAPTER V.
GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY.
Provisional legislation by the King in Council—Appointment of Officers by the Crown—Present security for good government—Favourable premise as to the future, during the provisional state—Provision for local self-government when the population of the colony shall amount to 50,000 souls. The transportation system never to be inflicted on this colony—Apology for speaking evil of other colonies.
It was originally proposed to his Majesty's
government, that the South Australian Association should he
incorporated as a body politic, with powers for
governing the colony until its population amounted to
50,000 souls; and that then the powers of the
Association should he transferred to the colonists. Such a delegation of authority would have been in strict accordance with the leading principle of the British constitution, which may be said to govern by means of a vast number of subordinate governments exercising delegated authority for special or local purposes:
and this course would have been agreeable to the nearly uniform practice of the British government in the foundation of colonies. This course, however, is desirable, only on the assumption that the supreme authority, and the chief executive authority, that is, parliament and the ministers, are too much occupied with the important affairs of the mother country to bestow much voluntary attention on the affairs of an infant and distant colony; and, further, on the obvious truth that such great rulers are not liable to any
