4281.
1
SIR,
No. 86.
(QUEENSLAND.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
+
Royal Courts of Justice,
March 5, 1887.
We were honoured with Mr. Bramston's letter of the 15th ultimo, stating that on the 29th of July 1885* the then Law Officers advised Lord Stanley of Preston that if it should be desired hereafter to separate the. "northern portion of Queensland and form it into a new Colony, the requisite
powers for effecting this object can, in our opinion, properly be conferred "Her Majesty by an Act of the Imperial Parliament confirming provisions in upon "that behalf made by the Queensland Legislature, analogous to that already "passed in the case of New South Wales.'
£6
That on the 26th of June 1886† the late Law Officers advised Lord Granville that" with regard to the proper procedure for dividing the "Colony they agreed with the above-cited report," and have nothing to add to it." That copies of both reports were enclosed for convenience of reference.
That by the allusion to provisions passed in the case of New South Wales, you understood the Local Act to be meant which formed the Schedule to the Act 18 & 19 Victoria, chapter 54, but that you felt some uncertainty whether the last sentence of the report of the 29th July 1885 merely indicated a procedure which, if followed, would be suitable for the present occasion, or whether it was intended thereby to convey that some resolution or Bill of the Queensland Legislature was a necessary antecedent to the passing of an Act by the Imperial Parliament.
That Mr. Bramston was further to observe that by the Acts 5 & 6 Victoria, chapter 36, and 9 & 10 Victoria, chapter 104, provision was made for the disposal of the waste lands of the Crown in New South Wales; that both those Acts were repealed by the Act 18 & 19 Victoria, chapter 56, and that by section 2 of the Act 18 & 19 Victoria, chapter 54, the entire management and control of the waste lands belonging to the Crown in the Colony, and the appropriation of the proceeds of sales and all other proceeds and revenues of the same, were vested in the Legislature of the Colony.
That a provision of similar purport was contained in section 43 of the Schedule to that Act. That those provisions applied to the Legislature of Queensland in respect to so much of the waste lands of New South Wales as was included in the latter Colony.
That you were unwilling to trouble us with a recapitulation of the Acts mentioned in the report of the 26th of June 1886, but that Mr. Bramston was to refer to them as showing the successive stages of legislation affecting the parent Colony of New South Wales, and consequently the Colony of Queensland, and that Mr. Bramston was to request us to be good enough to favour you with our opinion-
(1.) Whether it would be necessary that the Legislature of Queensland should first make provision (a) by resolution or address to Her Majesty, or (b) by Bill, for the division of the Colony, before it would be competent to the Imperial Parliament to pass an Act for that purpose.
(2.) if not, whether the fact that the control of the waste lands of the Crown in the Colony of Queensland was vested in the Legislature offered any. obstacle to the Imperial Parliament passing an Act for the creation of a new Colony in which some portion of those waste lands would be included.
In compliance with the request contained in Mr. Bramston's letter, we have the honour to
Report
1. That it is, in our opinion, competent to the Imperial Parliament to pass an Act for the division of the Colony of Queensland, but it would be highly undesirable to adopt any such course without a resolution, address of, or Bill passed by the Legislature of the Colony, with a view to such an object.
* No. 18.
4
50060.-11. 25.-3/87.
† No. 71.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
miyim
C.O.
Reference :-
• 885
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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