Part 23 (1/2)

The year 1899 was remarkable for the pa.s.sage of two great measures--the Australasian Federation Enabling Act, pa.s.sed in a session specially summoned for the purpose, which authorised a referendum to be taken on the new Const.i.tution; and the invaluable and monumental Criminal Code Act, extending with its four schedules over 270 pages of the Statute-book. The Code was compiled by Sir S. W.

Griffith, and was afterwards submitted to the whole of the Judges of the Supreme and District Courts before being presented to Parliament.

A bill was also pa.s.sed legitimising children born before marriage on the subsequent marriage of their parents. The other public measures of the session were for amending purposes.

The session of 1900 was a fairly active one, thirty-four measures being pa.s.sed. A short Act of far-reaching importance empowered the Government to enter into arrangements with the Governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Victoria, New South Wales, and New Zealand, for laying a Pacific cable. By a short measure the Government were empowered to prohibit the exportation of arms or naval stores. A great consolidating and amending Health Act was pa.s.sed; also a measure, in connection with the appointment of Dr. Maxwell, of Honolulu, for the establishment of sugar experiment stations. In this year the Railway Commissioner was reappointed for three years at a salary of 2,000 per annum, being an increase of 500. The Factories and Shops Act of 1896 was repealed, and a more comprehensive measure pa.s.sed. An amending Defence Act was pa.s.sed providing, among other things, for the military training of boys between twelve and eighteen years. An Act also became law providing for the inspection of grammar schools by a graduate of a British or Australian University. Another measure provided for the holding of the first Commonwealth elections, and for the temporary division of the State into nine electorates for the House of Representatives election. Several bills authorising the construction of railways to mineral fields by private companies evoked the bitter opposition of the Labour party. To force them through the popular House the Government were obliged to introduce an amendment of the Standing Orders, colloquially known as the ”guillotine,” and to closure the bills through the House.

In the session of 1901 twenty-seven Acts were pa.s.sed. The Chief Justice's salary, on the retirement of Sir S. W. Griffith to accept the Federal Chief Justices.h.i.+p, was reduced to its former amount of 2,500 a year. The first legislation to eradicate the p.r.i.c.kly pear took place in this year. The bill was introduced by a private member, Mr. Bell, who has always taken a keen interest in the destruction of this pest. It was based on the principle that close settlement is the only effective remedy, and offered inducements to settlers to select infested lands. The Public Service Act was so amended as to const.i.tute the members of the Ministry for the time being the members of the board. A measure was pa.s.sed requiring every life a.s.surance company carrying on business in Queensland to hold 10,000 in Queensland securities, and otherwise protecting policy-holders. An Agricultural Bank Act was pa.s.sed authorising the Government to advance to settlers on the land loans for carrying out improvements. An Animals Protection Act was also pa.s.sed for the more effectual prevention of cruelty to animals.

THE FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT: 8th July, 1902-21st July, 1904.

The fourteenth Parliament opened on 8th July, 1902, twenty-seven public measures becoming law in the first session. An amending Aboriginals Protection Act, chiefly dealing with the sale of opium, was pa.s.sed. The sum to be paid as duty on totalisator stakes or bets was increased to one s.h.i.+lling in the pound from the sixpence provided by the Act of 1892. A Railway Act amending measure was pa.s.sed authorising the appointment of a Commissioner for a term of seven years, and making other changes to facilitate the working of the department. In consequence of the drought and Federal embarra.s.sments, the Public Service Special Retrenchment Act was pa.s.sed, reducing the salaries of public servants on a sliding scale; and an Income Tax Bill became law, imposing a tax of sixpence in the pound upon incomes derived from personal exertion, and one s.h.i.+lling in the pound when derived from property, incomes under 100 being mulcted in 10s., and when not exceeding 150 1 a year. Provision was made for the appointment of a Government department for collecting the tax, and the last section enacted that the tax should cease on 1st January, 1905.

The monumental Local Government Act of 1902 also became law in this year.

The next session opened in July, and closed in December, 1903, but in mid-September progress was suspended by a change of Ministry, the Morgan-Kidston Government a.s.suming office. Among the measures pa.s.sed after the change of Ministry was an Act providing that the senior puisne Judge resident in Brisbane should be the senior puisne Judge of the Supreme Court, and discretionary power was given to the Governor in Council with regard to filling the vacancy created on the Supreme Court bench through the acceptance by Sir S. W. Griffith of the more dignified position of Chief Justice of the High Court of the Commonwealth. The Government were subjected to severe criticism for making no appointment, but the number of Judges was allowed to remain at four until the appointment of Mr. Justice Shand in November, 1908.

Parliament rea.s.sembled in May following, and sat two months, when a dissolution was granted on 21st July, in consequence of the Government being left without a working majority.

THE FIFTEENTH PARLIAMENT: 20th September, 1904-11th April, 1907.

The fifteenth Parliament opened on 20th September following, and sat until Christmas. Among the measures pa.s.sed was a comprehensive Dairy Produce Act providing for the appointment of inspectors; the registration of premises, a fee being charged proportioned to the number of cows kept; for compulsory grading of b.u.t.ter for export; and for the general regulation of dairies. The Income Tax was continued, but gave relief to persons with small incomes, though on the whole it yielded more revenue. Owing to the exigencies of the Treasury, the Public Service Special Retrenchment Act was continued for a further period of nine months, but the rate of retrenchment was reduced by one-half, and provision was made for devoting any surplus revenue at the close of the year to the repayment to public servants of the amounts so deducted from their salaries, and in this way they received a return equal to 8s. in the pound.[a] A Registration of Clubs Act and fourteen other measures were also pa.s.sed.

An extraordinary session of twenty days was held in January, 1905, to reconsider the Elections Bill, rejected by the Legislative Council in December previously. This having been done, and the Council having agreed to the bill, Parliament was prorogued, and met for the regular session of the year in July following, the sittings being continued till the Christmas holidays.

The ordinary session of 1905 was a busy one, though the measures generally were short and of a practical nature. A distinguis.h.i.+ng feature of the work of this Parliament was the humanitarian and social legislation which was placed on the Statute-book. The interests of workers generally were conserved by the Workers' Compensation Act, which made injuries or fatal accidents met with by employees a charge upon the industry in which they were engaged. The comfort of a very large number of workers in the pastoral and sugar industries was provided for by the Shearers and Sugar Workers Accommodation Act. A most valuable piece of legislation was the Infant Life Protection Act, the object of which was to prevent the alarming sacrifice of infant life in nursing homes from neglect, all such homes having to be registered and made subject to Government inspection. An Act imposing a penalty of 10 upon any person selling or giving tobacco or cigars to a young person under the age of sixteen years was pa.s.sed, as was also an Act forbidding the sale or supply of firearms to a young person under fourteen years, and also forbidding such young person to use or carry firearms, the penalty for a breach of the Act being 20. Another measure of interest, which was pa.s.sed in response to the request of a large number of workers, was an Act providing for railway employees a Board of Appeal against disciplinary decisions of superior officers. A short Act became law giving the right to women to admission and practice as barristers, solicitors, or conveyancers.

Quite a number of other small Acts was pa.s.sed, among them being a Fertilisers Act, the object of which was to prevent loss to farmers by the sale of fraudulent fertilisers.

The most contentious measure of the session of 1906, which opened, as usual, in July, was the Railways Act, its princ.i.p.al object being to hold the ratepayers of a benefited area responsible for all losses in working a newly-constructed railway. It empowers the local authority to levy a railway rate to make good the deficiency, if any, after providing for working expenses and interest at the rate of three per cent. on capital expended on the line. If the local authority fails to levy and collect the railway rate, the Commissioner is empowered to do so. An important principle of the Act requires, when lands in a benefited area are being valued for rating purposes, that to the capital value shall be added the enhancement through the railway facilities provided. The object of the Act is undoubtedly good, in so far as it discourages landowners from agitating and bringing political pressure upon the Government in favour of railway undertakings not justified by the prospective traffic. It was supposed that persons desiring a new railway would hesitate to guarantee the Government against loss through its construction, but the applications for new lines have not been less numerous since the pa.s.sing of the Act than when the burden fell entirely upon the general taxpayer. Yet there can be no doubt that many unwarranted undertakings have been quashed by the liability imposed upon local landowners.

During the session there were thirty-four Acts pa.s.sed, among them one for the protection of opossums, native bears, and other wild animals specified in the schedule, by the proclamation of a close season, and the prohibition of the use of cyanide as poison by collectors of skins for export. The Mining Machinery Advances Act empowered the Minister to advance loans from moneys appropriated by Parliament to persons or companies erecting machinery for carrying on mining operations or treating metalliferous ores, such loans to be made on the basis of 1 for 1 of money expended by the applicant. A comprehensive Weights and Measures Act also became law. Another useful measure was the amending Public Works Land Resumption Act, the compensation provisions being greatly improved. The Etheridge Railway Act also pa.s.sed in this session despite the objection of several members of the Labour party to ”syndicate” lines. The opposition of these members, however, was not characterised by the obstructive tactics adopted in regard to similar measures in 1908.

[Footnote a: See page 50, ante.]

THE SIXTEENTH PARLIAMENT: 23rd July to 31st December, 1907.

The sixteenth Parliament was elected in May, 1907, but none of the three parties, into which the a.s.sembly was divided by the cleavage between the moderate and the extreme sections of the Labour party consequent upon the adoption by the latter of the socialistic objective at the Convention held earlier in the year at Rockhampton, came back with a majority, and little legislation was found possible, the only public Acts pa.s.sed relating to Appropriations, Children's Courts, Poor Prisoners' Defence, and an amending Income Tax measure raising the exemption to 200, and giving other relief to taxpayers.

Towards the end of November the Government, failing to pa.s.s several democratic measures through the Council and to obtain adequate support from the Labour party, resigned, and Parliament was dissolved on 31st December on the advice of Mr. Philp, who had been called on to form a new Government from the Opposition party, and had failed to secure a parliamentary majority.

THE SEVENTEENTH PARLIAMENT: 3rd March, 1908-31st August, 1909.

The result of the appeal to the const.i.tuencies was to leave parties much as before, the Kidston and Labour parties being slightly strengthened numerically, and the Philp party--the Government at the moment--weakened correspondingly, they and the Kidston party numbering 25 each, while the Labour party were 22 strong. Mr. Philp's appeal having thus failed, he retired, and Mr. Kidston, being recalled, sought to secure for his Government more than casual support from the Labour party. The House met on 3rd March, 1908. The session lasted barely seven weeks, and among the fifteen measures which became law were the following:--An amending Const.i.tution Bill repealing the provisoes to section 9 of the princ.i.p.al Act, the first of which required a two-thirds vote of both Houses to any amendment for varying the mode of appointment or number of members of the Legislative Council; and the second, that any such amending bill should not receive the Royal a.s.sent until it had lain thirty days on the table of both Houses of the Imperial Parliament. Another Const.i.tution Bill provided for a referendum to the electors when a bill pa.s.sed by the a.s.sembly had been twice rejected by the Council. The first of the above-mentioned bills received the Governor's a.s.sent forthwith, but as to the second such a.s.sent was reserved, and the bill transmitted to England. On 19th August, however, the King's a.s.sent was proclaimed, and the incompatibilities between the two Houses were thus satisfactorily adjusted by a comparatively simple process. A measure which aroused strong party feeling was a bill to amend the Elections Act by repealing the postal voting sections, subst.i.tuting provisions to enable absent voters to vote at any polling place in the State, and also ensuring greater secrecy by having the ballot papers from places where a small number of votes are recorded counted in some larger centre. A useful Land Surveyors Act was pa.s.sed, requiring registration after approval of candidates by a board to be const.i.tuted under the Act, and prescribing a variety of other regulations for the purposes of securing the competence and protecting the interests of surveyors generally. Other measures placed on the Statute-book included an Old Age Pensions Act, which has now lapsed in consequence of the pa.s.sing of a Commonwealth pensions law; an Act for the Inspection of Machinery and Scaffolding; an amending Factories and Shops Act containing many democratic provisions; a Wages Boards Act, which has been kindly taken to by both employers and employed, and promises to adjust most of the differences between masters and men; a Religious Instruction in State Schools Referendum Act, the poll to be taken on the same day as the polling for the first Federal election after the pa.s.sing of the Act; and an amending Technical College Act dissolving the councils of both metropolitan technical colleges, and vesting the property and future management in the Government. Two bills were also pa.s.sed authorising the construction of railways to the Mount Elliott and Lawn Hills mineral fields. These bills directly led to the Labour party a.s.suming an att.i.tude of open hostility to the Government, and brought the latter and the Opposition, led by Mr. Philp, together, as the policy put before the electors by these two parties was identical in almost every respect.

Before the opening of the second session on 17th November, 1908, the Kidston and Philp parties were fused into one on the common basis of the policy enunciated by Mr. Kidston in 1907 at Rockhampton. A reconstruction of the Cabinet preceded the meeting of Parliament. When the session closed on 22nd December very little legislative work had been done, most of the Government time being occupied with consideration of the Estimates, the Labour party, which had then become the Opposition proper, again offering obstruction to Government measures, and again compelling resort to the closure. An important measure of a non-party character was pa.s.sed, however, for a revision of the statute law in many important details. The most significant measure of the session was the Loan Act of 1908, authorising the borrowing of 3,208,000, the vote affording proof of the determination of the Government and Parliament to enter upon a vigorous policy of railway and public works extension.

The third session of the seventeenth Parliament opened on 29th June, 1909. The two sides of the House were so evenly balanced, owing to several supporters of the Government having crossed to the Opposition benches, that the majority of the Government was reduced to one.