§ MR. T. DUNCOMBESir, I beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary for the Colonies whether the conduct of Sir Henry Young, in abruptly proroguing the Legislative Assembly of Tasmania, 1312 pending the sitting of a Committee appointed to inquire into the working of the convict system in that colony, has received the approval of Her Majesty's Government; and what steps have been taken in consequence? The facts of the case are these. During the last year a Committee was appointed by the Legislative Assembly of Tasmania, or, as it is better known, Van Diemen's Land, to inquire into the working of the convict system. That Committee sat and was proceeding with the inquiry, when it happened they required some information from the superintendent of the convict department in the colony. Accordingly he was summoned to attend, but he refused, and not only refused to attend himself, but he prevented his subordinate from doing so. On this the Assembly determined to use the power vested in them to enforce their authority. However, the Governor, Sir Henry Young, seems to have sided with the officer in his contumacy, and immediately, without notice, he proceeded to prorogue the Assembly. Of course this act on the part of the Governor put an end to the investigations of the Committee, and completely precluded the legitimate exercise of their undoubted authority. I would beg to ask, then, if this little coup d'état of Sir Henry Young's has met with the approbation of Her Majesty's Government; and, if not, what steps have been taken by them in consequence thereof?
§ MR. LABOUCHEREsaid, he should be quite ready to lay on the table papers which would give a full explanation of the whole of those transactions, as well as of the judgment which the Home Government had passed on the matter; but, after what had fallen from his hon. Friend, it would only be fair to all the parties concerned, that he should state the facts as they had really occurred. There was, he would not say a convict system, but a convict establishment in Tasmania, supported almost entirely by Imperial funds and under Imperial management. It was alleged that there existed great abuses in the conduct of this department, and the Executive Government, in the first instance, instituted an inquiry and took measures in consequence of that inquiry. The Legislative Assembly of Tasmania were not satisfied, hut instituted an inquiry of their own, and proceeded to summon before them the officers of the convict establishment. The Governor, maintaining that those officers were officers of the Executive Government, and 1313 not of the Legislative Assembly, declined to send them before the Committee. The Speaker then issued his warrant to summon them to the bar. The officers disputed the validity of the warrant; but surrendered by consent to a writ of Habeas Corpus, with a view of having the validity of the Speaker's warrant tested before the legal tribunals. Not satisfied with this, the Legislative Assembly issued another warrant to bring those officers to the bar of the House; whereupon the Governor, apprehending some unseemly spectacle of scuffling in the streets, thought that the only means to prevent that was by proroguing the Legislative Assembly. After the best consideration which he (Mr. Labouchere) was able to give to the whole transaction, he had come to the conclusion that the Governor was wrong in the first instance in not allowing the officers to attend before the Committee of the Legislative Assembly, because they had a right to look into any alleged grievances within the precincts of the colony; and it would have been time enough for the Governor to object when the Legislative Assembly should have trangressed the proper limits of their authority and have interfered with the management of an establishment paid for by Imperial funds, and for which the Imperial authorities should be responsible. He had stated that opinion to the Governor, and he regretted that, by an error of judgment, the Governor should have put himself in opposition to the Legislative Assembly on that point; but, after the matter had gone to the extreme it did, he was not prepared to say that the Governor was wrong in proroguing the Assembly. All he could say was, that the papers should be produced, and the House would then be able to form a judgment on the affair. As this Legislative body had ceased to exist, and as the people of the colony would be governed by a new Legislature, he trusted that this unfortunate irritation would pass away, and that the new Legislature would meet without feeling any soreness from bygone transactions.