public opinion on this important subject throughout the colony, that although the appropriation was voted in due form by the legislative council, it did not take place; the ordinary revenue of the colony for the years 1835 and 1836 being found sufficient to meet the whole amount of the additional charge for the maintenance of the colonial police establishment.
The principle, however, being once established, that the colonial land-revenue might be appropriated for other purposes than the one originally proposed; it was kept for some time in retentis by the colonial executive, to be exhibited and carried into operation on the first convenient opportunity. And, accordingly, when the estimates of the general expenditure of the colonial government for the year 1837 were laid before the council in the month of July last, the sum of £80,000 was included in the Ways and Means, as the probable balance of revenue of Crown lands, after deducting the charges of immigration. It is a maxim of the lawyers, boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem; of course, after the principle had been established that a portion of the land-revenue might be appropriated towards the maintenance of the colonial police, it was merely a slight amplification of jurisdiction to apply it in prospect to any purpose whatever.
