nnual Estimates of Expenditure for the compensation of
members of Parliament, and the objectionable item was not included in
the Estimates for the year when laid before the Assembly that session.

On five subsequent occasions separate Bills for the same object have
been sent up from the Legislative Assembly, three of which were
rejected, and the two last were passed by the Legislative Council, but
on both these occasions the principal supporters of the Bills distinctly
stated that their votes were given on the understanding that the
measures were to be tentative only, and limited in their duration.

The question at the present time is in exactly the same position as it
was when originated in 1861, and is still in the region of experimental
legislation. It is not a mere question of the appropriation of the
public revenue, but of public policy upon which an uniform usage has
been adopted in the colony, with the concurrence of both Houses, with
the marked co-operation of Her Majesty's Representative in 1861.

The usage, moreover, is in strict conformity with the Royal Instructions
which direct that "in the passing of all laws each different matter must
be provided for by a different law without intermixing such things as
have no proper relation to each other, and that no clause or clauses be
inserted in, or annexed to any Act which shall be foreign to what the
title of that Act imports."

We desire to inform Your Excellency that we claim the right to exercise
the same free and deliberate vote on any Bill which may be submitted to
us for providing compensation to members of Parliament as we have
exercised on all previous occasions and we submit that the inclusion of
a sum for that purpose in the Annual Appropriation Bill might make such
procedure the instrument of enabling one branch of the Legislature to
coerce the other.

GOVERNOR SIR G.F. BOWEN, G.C.M.G., TO THE EARL OF CARNARVON, RECEIVED
23RD JAN. 1878. Telegraphic.

_23rd Jan. 1878._

In consequence of the rejection of the annual Appropriation Bill by the
Legislative Council, ministers have made large temporary reductions in
the public expenditure to economise funds for Police Gaols, and
protection of life and property to the latest possible moment, and that
is about until next May. A number of civil servants and minor officers
of the judicial department have necessarily been dispensed with
temporarily, but sufficient provision has been made for the
administra