Bligh admitted that the Governor imposed "duties on trade and on merchants and exports at his own pleasure".[1] But he added "the Governor had the power of levying duties at his own will, and was justified in that power by his orders from home". The trace of misgiving apparent in this answer was not without cause. The assumption of power, though unquestioned until 1815 and exercised by each Governor from 1794, was quite without legal foundation. Yet the Governor's Instructions assumed it, and though not especially mentioned in his Commission it was taken for granted by Secretaries of State and Governors alike. It could not indeed have been conferred without an Act of Parliament, for New South Wales was not a Colony obtained by conquest; and even had it been originally conquered, Parliament had already intervened in its affairs by the Act establishing the Criminal Court in 1787.[2]
But the assumption of power went farther than the raising of revenue. The Governor made laws "of a most important and penal nature," as well as imposing duties and taxes, though "such a power is not founded on any Act of Parliament nor provided for by the Governor's Commission."[3] The Secretary of State said in 1815 "The power of the Governor to issue Government and General Orders in the absence of all other authority, and the necessity of obeying them, rests now on the same foundation on which it has stood since the first formation of the Colony".[4] In that position the matter rested until 1817.[5]
The chief items of revenue were the duties on imports and port dues. Of these Macquarie allocated three-fourths to the Police Fund and one-fourth to the support of the Orphan School.[6] The other sources of revenue were fees and fines and
- ↑ Evidence to C. on T., 1812.
- ↑ Geo. III., cap. II. The law on the subject before 1810 may be found in Cowper's Reports of Cases in the King's Bench, 1774 to 1778, pp. 204-214. Campbell v. Hall, 1783. See opinion quoted there of Sir Clement Wearye and Sir Philip Yorke in 1722, p. 211. See also Sir Samuel Romilly's opinion re Trinidad, 26th June, 1806, printed in Memoirs, published 1814, vol. ii., p. 149.
- ↑ Bent to Bathurst, 14th October, 1814. R.O., MS.
- ↑ Bathurst to Bent, 11th December, 1815, CO., MS. In a memorandum by Governor King, 2nd January, 1806 (H.R. VI., p. 1) he records that Macarthur told him of the opinion of an English barrister that the local regulations were illegal. Macarthur, however, did not name the barrister, and King gave no further attention to the subject.
- ↑ See Chapters VIII. and X.
- ↑ After 1816 seven-eighths went to the Police Fund and one-eighth to the Orphan School. The latter had been founded by Governor King.
