CHAPTER XX.
TWO DEFUNCT PUBLIC BODIES.
SYNOPSIS: —Précis of the Markets Act (N.S.W.). —The Initiatory Meeting. —How Market Street was created. —First Market Election and its result. —First Meeting of the Commission. —Opening of the Markets. —Officers of the Commission. —Mr. James Dobson, ex-Commissioner. —Market Regulations. —District Council of Bourke. —Powers of Councils described. —Members of the first Nominee Council. —Unpopularity of the Council. —The Council's Finality.
The Market Commission.
THOUGH Melbourne had been created and gazetted a town in April, 1837, it possessed no properly established market until the close of 1841. At the commencement of this year the inhabitants resolved to bring their township under the operation of the Markets Act of New South Wales, and took measures accordingly. As the Market Commission was the first legally constituted electoral body in Port Phillip it is to be hoped that a brief précis of some of the provisions of the Legislative talisman by which it was called into existence, may not be uninteresting. It is a relic of the old Nominee Legislative Council of New South Wales, has long since become obsolete, and a copy of it is not now easily to be found in Victoria. The 3rd Vict. No. 19 (22nd October, 1839), is intituled "An Act to Authorise the Establishment of Markets in certain towns in New South Wales, and for the Appointment of Commissioners to manage same." By it twenty-five free householders could meet and adopt a resolution for the establishment of a Market. This was then communicated by the Police Magistrate to the Colonial Secretary, and if it obtained the approval of the Executive Council, a notification would appear in the New South Wales Government Gazette. The Governor was to fix the number of Commissioners, and where there were four thousand inhabitants, the town should be divided into not less than three Wards, with not less than two Commissioners for each. The Governor was to appoint a Returning Officer and three Scrutineers for each election, whether of Town or Ward. All Elections were confined to one day between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Voters were to be householders or occupiers of houses of the annual value of £20, and proprietors, resident or non-resident, of land or buildings of the value of £200. The registration of electors was to be effected by every person desiring a vote, making and subscribing a declaration at the Court of Petty Sessions, twenty-one days before an election, that he was free, an inhabitant of the town, and a qualified occupier or proprietor; if the latter, he was to add — "That the property was bona fide, and not conveyed to him fraudulently, or with any secret understanding for the purpose of voting." He was entitled to a certificate of registration on paying one shilling to the Clerk of the Bench as Registering Officer. There did not appear to be any qualification for candidates. The voting was to be by ticket, having written on it the names of the persons to be voted for, and signed by the person presenting it. No person arriving in the Colony under sentence of transportation, unless free by servitude for at least three years, or the recipient of a free pardon, was entitled to vote, and a person might vote in as many Wards as he had qualified for.
On the close of the polling, the scrutineers were to have custody of the ticket-box, and to certify the Returns in writing within forty-eight hours to the Returning Officer, who was to make declaration of the poll by posting the result "upon the Police Office," but whether on door, floor, ceiling or chimney is not specified. The persons declared to be so elected were to form the Commission, with the Police Magistrate as an ex officio, and the tenure of seats was triennial. Periodical elections were to be held on the first Tuesday in July, without further notice than the publication of same (this time) "on the door of the Police Office," and advertising in a newspaper, if any should be printed in the town. Occasional vacancies were
