VICTORIA.

Constitution and Government.

THE Constitution of Victoria was established by an Act, passed by the Legislature of the colony, in 1854, to which the assent of the Crown was given, in pursuance of the power granted by the Act of the Imperial Parliament of 18 & 19 Vict. cap. 55. This charter vests the legislative authority in a Parliament of two Chambers; the Legislative Council, composed of thirty members, and the Legislative Assembly, composed of sixty members. Originally a high property qualification was required both for members and electors of the Legislative Council, but the same was reduced recently, by Colonial Statute, as regards members to the possession of an estate rated at not less than 50l. a-year, and as to electors to the possession or occupancy of property of the value of 50l., or 5l. per annum. No electoral property qualification is required for graduates of British universities, matriculated students of the Melbourne university, ministers of religion of all denominations, certificated schoolmasters, lawyers, medical practitioners, and officers of the army and navy. Six members, or a fifth of the Legislative Council, must retire every two years, so that a total change is effected in ten years. members of the Legislative Assembly are elected by universal suffrage. The duration of the Assembly was originally fixed at five years, but the term has since been reduced to three. Clergymen of any religious denomination, and persons convicted of felony, are excluded from sitting in both the Legislative Council and the Assembly. Members of the Legislature are not entitled at present to any remuneration for their services.

The

The executive of the colony is vested in a governor appointed by the Crown.

Governor of Victoria.-Hon. John H. T. Manners Sutton, born 1810, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated M.A., 1835; Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from Sept. 1841 to July 1846; returned M.P. for the borough of Cambridge, Sept. 1839, but unseated on petition; sat for the borough of Cambridge from 1841 to 1847; Lieut.-governor of New Brunswick, from June 1854 to Oct. 1861; Governor of Trinidad from April 1864 to May 1866; appointed Governor of Victoria, May 1866, and assumed office, Aug. 26, 1866.

The Governor, who is likewise commander-in-chief of all the colonial troops, has a salary of 10,000l. a year. In the exercise of the executive he is assisted by a cabinet of ten ministers, called the Chief Secretary, the Minister of Justice, the Attorney-General, the Treasurer, the President of Board of Land and Survey, the Commissioner of Public Works, the Commissioner of Railways, the Com

missioner of Customs, the Minister of Mines, and the PostmasterGeneral. At least four ministers must be members of either of the Houses of Legislature, and they are individually and collectively responsible for their acts to the colonial Parliament.

Revenue and Expenditure.

The total amount of the public revenue and expenditure of the colony, in each of the years 1860 to 1868, was as follows:

The figures for the year 1868 in the above table-furnished by the Government of Victoria to the Statesman's Year-book-are only approximate, the financial accounts of the year not being closed until the end of 1869.

The various branches of revenue and expenditure, in the year 1865, are shown in the subjoined table :

:

The chief sources of the revenue of Victoria, until the year 1862, were customs duties and sales of public lands, which, with some fluctuations, produced about one-half of the annual income. A new source of revenue was more recently added in the receipts derived from public works, including a great railway system, the management of which remains in the hands of the Government.

The public debt of Victoria amounted, at the commencement of July, 1869, to a total of 12,534,8007., the whole of which was incurred for the construction of public works, particularly railways, in the colony. The dates, rates of interest, and other particulars of the various loans constituting the debt, are given in the following statement, after official returns :—

The payment of both principal and interest of all the above loans are made primary charges upon the revenues of the colony, by Acts 18, 19, 21, 25, and 29 Victoria. The great railway. loan of 1858 is repayable to the amount of 7,000,000l. in London, and to the amount of 1,000,000l. in Melbourne.. (Communication of the Government of Victoria to the Statesman's Year-book.)

Area and Population.

The colony, first settled in 1835, formed for a time à portion of New South Wales, bearing the name of the Port Philip district. It was erected in 1851-by Imperial Act of Parliament, 13 and 14 Victoria, cap. 59-into a separate colony, and called Victoria. The colony has an area of 86,831 square miles. Victoria is bounded on the north and north-east by a straight line drawn from Cape Howe to the nearest source of the river Murray, thence by the course of that river to the eastern boundary of South Australia, or 141° E. long., thence, by that meridian, to the sea; on the south by the sea, a distance of about 600 miles, to Cape Howe, including the islands along the coast.

The growth of the population, as shown by the census of nine successive periods, is exhibited in the following table:

The public debt of the colony, dating from 1854, amounted to 593,7007. in 1857, to 870,1007. in 1860, and to 775,6007. in 1867. This debt does not include loans for reproductive public works.

'Area and Population.

The original boundaries of the colony, according to the statutes of 4 and 5 Wm. IV. cap. 95, were fixed between 132° and 141° E. long. for the eastern and western boundaries, the 26° of S. lat. for the northern limit, and for the south the Southern Ocean. The boundaries of the colony were subsequently extended, under the authority of Royal Letters Patent, dated July 6, 1863, so as to embrace all the territory lying northward of 26° S. latitude and between the 129th and 138th degrees of East longitude. The total area of this territory is calculated at 383,328 English square miles. South Australia was first colonised in 1836 by emigrants from Great Britain, sent out under the auspices of a company called the South Australian Colonisation Association, which in 1835 obtained a grant from the Imperial Government of the lands of the colony. The conditions were that the land should not be sold at less than 11. per acre; that the revenue arising from the sale of such lands should be appropriated to the immigration of agricultural labourers; that the control of the company's affairs should be vested in a body of commissioners approved by the Secretary of State for the colonies, and that the governor should be nominated by the Crown.

The total population of each sex, according to enumerations taken in the years 1844, 1846, 1851, 1855, 1861, and 1866, was as follow:

During the ten years from 1857 to the end of 1866, immigration brought 57,209 persons, while emigration carried off again 35,239, leaving a balance of 21,970 in favour of the colony. The number of immigrants conveyed at the public cost during this period was 23,795, or 1,825 more than the net gain by immigration.

The occupations of the population and their percentage proportion were as follows, according to the census of April 8, 1861 :