WIXLIB

Address rj' Cong1 atulation, Eta.[16 APRIL.]ADDRESS OF CONGRATULATION TO THEQUEEN.The PosTliLA.STER-GENERAL moved, withoutprevious noticeThat this House do now resolve itself into aCommittee of the Whole, to prepare and bringup an Address of Congratulation to Her Majestythe Queen, on the Recovery of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.He informed the House that the mail forEngland would leave Brisbane on Thursday,and that, under existing circumstances, hetook this course of making his motion, whichhe thought would be unopposed ; as, otherwise, another day would elapse before theAddress could be brought up.Question put and passed.The House then resolved into a Committee of the Whole, the Honorablo E.I. C. BROWNE taking the Chair, in theabsence through illness of the Chairman ofCommittees (the Honorable D. F. Roberts).Upon resuming, the Chairman presented thereport from the committee.The PRESIDENT road the report, asfollows:" liosr GnAcrors SovEREIGN" lfay it Please Your Majesty" We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyalsubjects, the Members of the Legislative Councilof Queensland, in Parliament assembled, take theearliest opportunity afforded us to assure YourMajesty of the heartfelt thankfulness with whichwe have received intelligence of the convalescenceof His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales." The sympathy so warmly expressed by allclasses of Your Majesty's subjects is equally feltin this distant portion of your dominions." vVe are grateful that , it has pleased TheAlmighty God, of his goodness, to deliver HisRoyal Highness the Prince of vVales fromimpending clanger, thereby restoring him tohealth, to Your JYiajesty, and people."We renew our expression of devoted attach·ment to the Throne and Person of Your MostGracious Majesty, and we hope that we maylong enjoy a continuance of those blessings whichYour Majesty's Reign has, under Divine Providence, been instrumental in securing to theBritish Empire."The PosTMASTER-GENERAL said : I amsure that this House must feel groat pleasurein being able to offer this Address of Congratulation to Her Majesty. It is nob verylong since not only we, but the whole Britishpeople, were in trouble on account of theillness of His Royal Highness the Prince ofWales. There is no saying, had it notpleased Almighty God to avert from theAdl:l essin .Reply.3nation the calamHy of His Royal Highness'decease, what might have happened: manypersons feared the worst. For my own part,I hope that the old feeling which was in themother country when I left it is still dominant amongst Englishmen-that is, that theirideas and thoughts are, as ours, for ourSovereign and the Constitution. I am surethat, whatever may be said by turbulentspirits, the time has arrived when every trueBriton feels that he is bound to rally roundthe Throne and to support the Constitution,even to the shedding of our best blood intheir defence. This, I say, has been proved.Perhaps there is no evil without its accompanying or compensating good. The sympathy which was shewn for Her M!l;jesty andthe Royal Family on the occasion of the lateillness of the Heir Apparent to the Crown bymillions of people, expressed what the realfeelings of the British nation are. I amone who, and I am sure every honorablegentleman in this House, avows his loyaltyin that sympathy and those feelings ; and wejoin sincerely in congratulating Her Majestyupon the recovery of the Prince of Wales.We can hope with every confidence that Hisl{oyal Highness may be long spared to followthe example of his illustrious parents, whenit shall please the Almighty to bring him tothe Throne. I have to moveThat the report, as read, be adopted.Question put and passed.In answer to the PosTMASTER-GENERAL,The PRESIDENT said the Address would, asa matter of course, be transmitted by himselfto the Governor, in accordance with the l09thStanding Order, for presentation to HerMajesty.ADDRESS IN REPLY TO OPENINGSPEECH.The PRESIDENT informed the House thathe had, for the greater accuracy, obtained acopy of the Speech which His Excellencythe Governor was pleased to deliver to bothHouses of Parliament, this day ; and hethereupon read such portions of it as wereaddressed to the Legislative Council.The PosTMASTER-GENERAL movedThat a Select Committee be appointed to consider and prepare an Address in Reply to theOpening Speech of His Excellency the Governor,and that such committee consist of The Honorable E. I. C. Browne, The Honorable J. A. Bell,The Honorable J. F. McDougall, The HonorableC. B. Whish, and the Mover.Question put and pas:led.The Committee retired to deliberate ; and,being returned,The Hon. E. I. C. BRoWNE brought upthe report of the Committee.

4Adrhess in Reply:coUNCIL.]The Clerk read the report, as follows : " To His Excellency The Most HonorableGEORGE AUGL'STUS CoNSTANTINE, Marquisof Normanby, Earl of Mulgrave, ViscountNormanby, and :Baron Mulgrave of Mulgrave, all in the' County of York, in thePeerage of the United Kingdom; andBaron Mulgrave of New Ross, in theCounty of Wexford, in the Peerage ofIreland; a Member of Her Majesty'sMost Honorable Privy Council, Governorand Commander-in-Chief of the Colony ofQueensland and its Dependencies."MAY IT PLEASE YouR EXCELLENCY" I. We, Her Majesty's loyal and dutifulsubjects, the Members of the Legislative Councilof Queensland, in Parliament assembled, desire toassure Your Excellency of our continued loyaltyand affection towards the Person and Governmentof our Most Gracious Sovereign, and to thankYour Excellency for the Speech with which youhave been pleased to open the present Session."2. We have received with deep satisfactionthe intelligence of the Rerovery of His RoyalHighness the Prince of Vi'ales from his severeillness, and agree with Your Excellency in considering it to be our first duty to convey to HerMajesty om· humble and hearty congratulationson its having pleased .Almighty God to avert :fromHer Majesty, and from the Nation at large, thecalamity which, at one time, appeared inevitable."3. We will carefully consider the Bill to belaid before us for appointing .Additional fembersand the Redistribution of Electorates, as well asthe other Bills referred to by Your Excellency."4. When the Report of the Commissionappointed by Your Excellency to enquire into andreport on Railway Construction shall have beenlaid before us, it shall haye our ea,rnest attention ;and we join Your Excellency in the hope thatdue consideration may shew it to be advisable toextend the advantages of Railway Communicationin the Colony." 5. vVe are gratified to lea,m that the ElectricTelegraph Line has been extended to the Gulf ofCarpentaria, and hope, before long, unbrokencommunication ,,.m be established with Enrope." 6. The various important subjects referred toby Your Excellency shall have our mor,t carefulattention."7. We receive with satisfaction Your Excellency's congratulations on the progreRs ancl prosperity of the Colony, and it shall be our aim toco-operate with Your Excellency in securing acontinuan'ce of that prosperity, and in promotingthe welfare of all classes of the 0ommunity."The Hon. E. I. C. BnowNE said that thetask which had fallen to him on this occasion,to move the adoption of the .Address into Opening Speed.Reply, was one which he had more than onceundertaken ; in fact, he had so often undertaken it, that he was afraid honorable gentlemen would all much regret it had not falleninto fresher hands than his. He must saythat he, himself, regretted it especially,because he should have been glad if the newmember, whose appointment the House hadheard of, was present, as into his hands thetask would naturally have fallen. He couldnot resist taldng this opportunity to say howglad he was that a member for the NorthernDistricts vmuld at last take a seat in theCouncil. Honorable gentlemen were alwaysanxious that members from the more distantparts of the colony should be amongst them ;and one was now to make his appearance inthat Chamber. Often as he (Mr. Browne)had performed such a duty as the one he wasBow engaged in, he did not think he everdid it with more satisfaction than he nowfelt. He had heard the Speech with greatpleasure. To his mind it was as good aSpeech as could ever be expected ; and, ifcarried into effect-as he, knowing theMinistry, thought it roulcl be-knowing theearnest and faithful way in which they performed their duty and kept the promisesthey made-and he thought this was the ex}Jerience of the colony-the policy shadowedforth in the Speech would conduce to thegeneral "1\"elfare. He was glad of this, andthe more so because he thought he could,at this early hour of the session, feel thepulse of the House. He thought he wasright in saying that he felt the Council met,to-clay, more like an united and happy family,more like the olden times, than had beenthe case during late sessions. He might bewrong-he hoped he was not-but he hadthat sort of impression, that they met in acheerful, pleasant humor, this session; andhe hoped that that lmmor 1roulcl be preservedduring the whole course of their duties.After saying so much, he would follow theusual plan, and comment upon the Governor's Speech and the Address which he askedthe House to adopt in reply to the Speech.The first paragraph of the Speech had, hemight say, been already disposed of by theAddress which the Council had just adopted.They had in that Address expressed theirown feelings. He was quite satisfied, however, that it did not express to the full extent the feelings of Her Majesty's subjectsin this colony : he did not think that wordscould express their feelings adequately. H ccould not avoid saying that the Prince'sillness was not unmixed with good. Goodhad been derived from it, for that illness hadcalled forth manifestations ofloyalty throughout the Empire-and at home, especially,where the spirit of loyalty had the greatc"t n'ight and "IYUS of mocit importance ;-afeeling of loyal attachment to the Throne,and of' personal attachment to Her Jl.fajesty,of which the world 1vas hardly aware, as it

Address in R!7ply[16APRIL.]had been slumbering in the breasts of thepeople, was aroused, and the experience ofHer Majesty's long reign shewed she welldeserved it. Besides that, the strong attachment of the nation to the constitution hadbeen demonstrated. 'l'here was reason tobelieve that the feeling which had beenevoked, would put an end, for ever, to thatpolitical opinion which had reared its headonly to be crushed-that the British Constitution was not enough for the wants of thepeople, and that the only way to satisfy thosewants was to subvert the present constitutionentirely, and to form a republic. He, for one,hoped, and he believed, that every honorablemember of the Council, and the majority ofthe people, not only of this colony but ofevery colony and dependency under thedominion of Her Majesty, hoped that thatdiscord would be terminated finally. Hetrusted that riot in our lives, nor in those ofour children and our children's children,would such a change be brought about asthat to which he had referred . The secondclause of the Speech particularly referred toa measure which had caused the shorteningof the last session of Parliament, by prorogation-" A Bill for Appointing Additional fembers and the Redistribution of Electorates." .He might say, referring to the Bills ·which were before Parliament, last session,that, as far as his own opinion and feelingswent, he was very well satisfied with them ;and, if they were carried out in a fair manner,he had no doubt they would meet with thesupport of the Council. He could not passover that clause without recalling what tookplace last session, and saying he trusted that,whatever opposition parties might feel honestlydisposed to give to any Bill which was broughtforward by the :Ministry, the Parliament andthe country would not witness the same sortof opposition as 1 as then adopted. He hadno doubt that the opposition was honestlycarried out, but he could not conceive that itwas honestly adopted. He could not conceivethat the circumstances justified it. He couldnot see that any circumstances had arisenwhich would justify an opposition to becarried the length to which that was 'arried. He could conceive that such acase might arise. He could conceive a casewhere a Ministry might bring in measures iso outrageous than an opposition to anyextent 'Youlcl be justified to stop their progress; but for his own part, he could not,last session, be convinced that such a case hadarisen. If representative government wasto be carried out, it was only to be clone bymajorities having their fair and proncr weightin the respective Houses. Therefore, heshould hope that such opposition vYould not,upo.n such slight grounds, oYer take placeagam. In the third clause of the Speech,they were told that-1" Several Bills, which have already advancedsome stages, will be re-introduced, as well asothers which have been for some time prepared."to Opening Speech.He regretted not to observe in that clause, orin the Speech at all, any notice of an intention to bring in any amendment of the Insolvency Act. He had thought that it mighthave been in the Speech last session ; butupon reference to it, he found an absence ofany mention of that measure. That Act· waslooked upon as requiring amendment morethan any other, and its amendment was of thegreatest importance to the community. Hehoped, therefore, that, though it was not mentioned in the Speech, its absence was only anoversight, and that the Goyernment had aBill prepared for the amendment of the Insolvency Act. The question of immigration,referred to in the fourth clause of the Speech,was, no doubt, one of very great importance.He was not prepared, at all, to state what hisideas were as to how the immigration systemshould be worked ; he could only say that heshould hope to see the public lands utilisedas much as possible in paving the way for thepeople to come out from the mother country,and that settlement on the lands should bethe great boon held out to immigrants. Thefifth clause took away what had been so longthe bone of contention between parties in theLegislature; and it would, he presumed, setat rest the railway question. He might saythat had that paragraph not appeared in theSpeech, honorable gentlemen would not havebeen troubled by him this afternoon, as heshould not haye moved the Address ; butseeing it there he had had no hesitation inmoYing it. Honorable members were awarethat he was no warm advocate for railways; buthe had lately come to the conclusion, and hehad expressed it before in the House, thatthe time for the completion of the railway toBrisbane had certainly arrived. He shouldha c been glad if the fifth clause of theSpeech, instead of merely relying on thereport of the Commission, which was notbefore. the House, had taken some notice ofthe resolutions which· had been passed by theCouncil, i'ecommending the completion ofthat railway. If those resolutions had beenreferred to as the basis of the change ofopinion of the Ministry-and not only thoseresolutions, but what was still more important, the strong feeling outside the House,throughout the colony, that railways shouldbe made-he thought that would have beena better reason for what was proposed thanfor the Government to say they now con·siclered it advisable to sanction measures forrailway extension, upon the report of a Commission which was not yet laid before Parliament. He should be glad, however, thatthe making of the railway demanded by thepublic hacl fallen to the hands of the presentMinistry. He had very ! reat fault to findwith the past administration in regard torailway construction; and he trusted thatthere would be no repetition of what he mustcall the disgraceful expenditure and jobberywhich he believed, and which he knew, wenton in connection with the formation of the

6.Address in Reply[COUNCIL.]original railways of the colony. He trustedthat, in carrying out the work in future,every economy would be practised by theMinistry ; and that they would see that,instead of sending home for everythingsuch as iron stations, and many other thingswhich could be well made in this colony, andbe no loss to the works-they would get allthey could done in the colony. The Government shadowed forth not only the Brisbanerailway but other lines, which he thought verydesirable, of a cheaper character than it. TheIpswich and Brisbane Railway must, no doubt,be continued on the present railway basisthe same gauge as was now in use must beadopted, so that there should be no break ofgauge ; yet he hoped to see greater economypractised in the work than was the case onthe existing lines. For other parts of thecolony, he presumed, and he hoped, that theGovernment intended to bring before Parliament plans for a much cheaper line, if possible. He very much regretted that theCommission moved for by him last session,which was carried by the Council, had fallento the ground in consequence of the Government declining to adopt it. If the resolutionof the House had been carried out, they would,at no very distant time, be in possession ofmany facts which he should be very muchsuprised to find in the evidence broughtbefore the Commission that the Governmenthad appointed. He did not believe there wasthe practical knowledge in the colony whichthe Government ought to have acquired, andwhich they should acquire, by sending tothose parts of the world where extremelycheap and new modes of railway traffic werein operation. As to the appointment of Mr.Richard Daintree as Agent-General for Emigration, he (Mr. Browne) had not the slightestacquaintance with that gentleman; but heconfessed some doubts whether, in the appointment of a gentleman who was simplyknown as a geological surveyor-howevergr eat his talents and experience in that waym1ght be-the Government had secured anofficer whose qualifications fitted him for suchan important post. As the House only knewthe gentleman in his geological capacity, heshould be glad to learn from the PostmasterGeneral that Jlrlr. Daintree possessed all theother qualifications which he thought werenecessary in an Agent-General. The AgentGeneral should be a gentleman accustomedto speaking. He would have to deliver lectures. He (Mr. Rrowne) presumed that theGovernment intended that the Agent-Generalshould lecture in various parts of England.The reason why a late Agent-General threwup his appointment was his having beencalled upon by the Government to lecture,and his declining to lecture was regarded asa neglect of his duty. The Agent-Generalshould be a man well accustomed to commercial business, and conversant with business generally. It might be that Mr.Daintree had that knowledge aud that ex-to Opening Speech .perie.nce which fitted him for the office ;if so, the appointment would be a very goodone. He (Mr. Browne) was glrrd that Mr.vVheeler's services were retained; but, whether it was necessary, in the Speech from theThrone, to declare that to Parliament, hecould not see himself. However, that gentleman had been an excellent servant to thecolony. He (Mr. Browne) would not detainthe House much longer. Telegraphic communication, as proposed, was most desirable.In reference to the eleventh paragraph of theSpeech, he must express how very fully heapproved of the line of conduct pursued bythe Ministry in the case there referred to.At home, the colonists were charged withkidnapping ; but such charges were not madehere. Let the home authorities receive everyassistance from the colony, and let themsatisfy themselves of the truth or falsehoodof those charges which were made at home.He apprehended that the people of Queensland were satisfied that those charges werefalse ; therefore, why should they be put tothe expense of a commission P If the peopleof England or the Imperial Government didbelieve in those lying charges, let them do so,and let them appoint their commission; andlet them get every assistance from the Government of the colony to make their inquiry,so that they could satisfy themselves. Therehad been one case proved, here ; and hebelieved that efforts had been made to discover others, and had failed. In one instance,a man had been tried and convicted, and hewas undergoing very seYere and very properpunishment. He thought the colony mightwell be congratulated upon the discowry oftin ore, and that as mines were opened upand fresh mineral discoveries made, additionalreasons were presented for railway extension,and fresh force was given to the argumentsin favor of the construction of the proposedworks. He movedThat the Address, as read by the Clerk, benow adopted by this House.The Hon. J. A. BELL said he had muchpleasure in seconding the motion. He didnot think any lengthened observations wererequired from him to support the Address inReply to the Speech His Excellency haddelivered to Parliament. He had not takenany active part in politics, although he hadthe honor of a seat in the Council for someyears. He quite concurred in the Address,and he thought the policy that was stated inthe Speech was such as would conduce to thebt nefit of the rountry, and that the givingeffect to it would be with the approYal of theHouse and to the satisfaction o

the p arlia ientary debates during the second session of the sixth parliament of the colony of queensland, australia, appoin'l'ed to l'l!be'r at brisbaj\1 , 0" the sixteenth day of april, in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of her majesty qceen victoria, in the year of our lord 1872.