resist the district council scheme. The governor was determined to enforce it. It was his darling child; he had conceived it while looking out from his study on the dense population of a different state of society, and he was not the man to be beaten by circumstances. Like the Abbé Sieyes, and other celebrated manufacturers of constitutions and governing machines, he was blind and deaf to all facts which militated against his theories,—prepared that everybody should suffer so long as he maintained his character as a legislator. Thus he answered a deputation of the Legislative Council, and other influential colonists, who waited on him to point out the practical difficulties in the way of executing his district council scheme: "Whether it ruins the colony or not, an Act of Parliament must and shall be carried out."
On this question the battle began. The inhabitants, except in one district, neglected to elect committees. The governor appointed them. Then came the question of levying, after assessing, a rate. A flaw was discovered in the Act of Parliament. It was decided that the word "levy" did not empower the council to distrain. The governor applied to the Legislative Council for an Act to amend the flaw. The Legislative Council refused to help him. He was thrown back on the powers vested in the colonial treasurer; the "Algerine clause," as it was called in the colony, he threatened, but he dared not put in force. The struggle was carried on for years. The governor was supported by the approval of the home authorities; but the passive resistance of the colonists was too much for him. At length, in 1846, Earl Grey called for a report from the principal officials, including Mr. Deas Thomson, the colonial secretary for New South Wales, and Mr. Latrobe, the lieutenant-governor of Port Phillip, and they reported in a manner which effectually, and for ever, shelved Sir George Gipps' district councils.
In 1844, before the district councils had been shelved, a select committee of the Legislative Council investigated "grievances unconnected with land," and drew up a report, which was a kind of Australian declaration of rights.
These grievances, of which the following is a summary, remained unredressed until the advent of Sir John Pakington and the Duke of Newcastle to the Colonial Office opened up "unrestricted competition" in colonial concessions.
The colonists' committee complained of "being saddled with taxation for a civil list which they were not empowered to discuss, to the extent of 81,000." By the Act of 1850 this civil list was increased.
Of the total failure of the "District Councils, which created municipalities where the sparse population render popular election and local
