More than two weeks after running aground, the cruise liner Costa Concordia is still in the news, and has focused attention on the forthcoming centenary of the sinking of RMS Titanic on the night of April 14, 1912. The centenary will be marked in this column which will cover how the saga was reported in Armidale. Meanwhile, this week our attention is on another ship, which played a key role in the story of Australian Federation.
Time has passed and Federation has now completed 110 years. Although we are celebrating Australia Day this week, there are many who believe it should be called NSW Day, and Australia Day should be held on September 17, when Queen Victoria signed the proclamation in 1900 for fixing the date for the establishment of the Commonwealth. But let us go back to where we ended last week, when the delegates at the Federation Conference in Melbourne in February 1890 agreed they would meet again to draft a Federal Constitution.
No decision was reached about the date and place of the proposed Convention, but Duncan Gillies (Victoria’s Premier) was appointed to organise it, and he favoured somewhere cool, such as Hobart. In May 1890 Sir Henry Parkes (Premier of NSW) addressed the Legislative Assembly, moved that it agree for NSW to participate in the Convention, and then proposed that four delegates should be elected by that chamber and three by the Legislative Council. Conveniently, Sir Henry was seriously injured in an accident 11 days later, and wrote to Gillies that the Convention would have to be held in Sydney because he (Sir Henry) could not travel to Hobart.
A full Federation Convention met in Sydney in March and April 1891 in the NSW Legislative Assembly chamber. There were seven delegates from each of the six Australian colonies and three delegates from New Zealand. The 45 delegates had been chosen by their colonial Parliaments. Sir Henry Parkes, as host Premier, presided. The term “Commonwealth of Australia’ was agreed upon to describe the proposed union, and “One People – One destiny’ became the motto. Delegates debated general principles for two weeks and worked in committees for one week.
During the Easter break (March 27 to 29, 1891) Edmund Barton from NSW, Sir Samuel Griffith from Queensland, Andrew Inglis Clarke from Tasmania and Charles Cameron Kingston from South Australia worked on the draft constitution while cruising the Hawkesbury River aboard the Lucinda, the Queensland government’s yacht, on which Sir Samuel Griffith (Queensland’s Premier) had travelled to Sydney. The drafting team showered under a waterfall in the bush at Refuge Bay and then, suitably refreshed, resumed their work. The draft Constitution, based on one prepared in advance by Clarke, was rewritten and revised, and then sent to the printer.
Back from their break, the Convention delegates re-convened on March 31 to debate the draft, but the Bill as it came from the Lucinda draftsmen was, with a few minor amendments, adopted in its entirety on April 9. The delegates had produced a draft Constitution for the Commonwealth of Australia.
Some of the main features of the 1891 Constitution need to be highlighted: There would be a House of Representatives and a Senate. Each State would have an equal number of representatives in the Senate, which would be elected by the State Parliaments (as was the custom in the United States of America at that time) rather than directly by the people of each State. The Senate could make suggestions on money bills but not amendments.
There would be specified powers for the Federal Parliament. The other powers remained with the States. There would be a High Court to interpret the Constitution. The Ministers would be responsible to Parliament, in keeping with the Westminster System. The Constitution would establish the Parliament, which would determine the tariff.
The 1891 draft Constitution was a most remarkable document. As one prominent historian has observed: “In its fundamentals it is the Constitution we have today”. But there was still a lot of work to be done before Federation would be achieved. The story continues next week. Meanwhile, Happy Australia Day.
