SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 125, 8 October 1853, Page 3

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

The Register publishes, apparently on- anthority,. a draft of the new Constitution which <Jo\ernmcMit are preparing to submit for consideration. The following are the principal clauses, as set forth ia ilm? Begwber ; and from the tone of the colonial journals - /we. think it likely that the public wilt -have x^ooti deal to say to some of them, not caicuiauwJUa j>m- t ' mote their adoptions' :. — ",' '' 'a' -'„ t The Parliament of South Australia' to cousiat.pf . . an IJpper .House, comprising, ia (he first ia3ti»uce X -

12 members nominated by the Crown for life, and called the Legislative Council ; and a Lower House, called the Legislative Assembly, comprising, at first, 36 elective members. The suffrage to be extended to £5 householders, £20 freeholders, and all persons rated to any assessment by aDistricl Council.

No other qualification to be required for members of either house except that of their names being on the roll of electors.

Members of the Upper House to be not less than SO years of age.

A seat in either House to be vacated by insolv ency, lunacy, or conviction of crime. Members of either house to have power to resign. A seat in the Upper House to be vacated by absence of two successive sessions. The Lower House to be elected for three years and a member's seat to be vacated by absence without leave of the Assembly for one whole session.

No bills to be reserved for her Majesty's assent except such as may affect imperial interests. In the event of the Governor giving his assent to any bill which may be considered in England to affect the interests of the crown, her Majesty to have power of disallowance, but not unless the question shall have been first raised by the two Houses of Parliament in England, and a decision pronounced by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council that such a bill actually affects imperial interests.

In the event of the British Parliament repealing the Waste Lands Act, and giving over the land fund to the control of the Colonial Legislature, the present system of selling and leasing land to be perpetuated, namely, no land to be alienated, except through sale by auction at a minimum price of £1 per acre, or leasing for a period not exceeding fourteen years. The present mode of appropriating the land fund to be also perpetuated, viz., not less than one-half to be devoted to the purposes of immigration, and the remaining moiety, after providing for the expenses of survey and management, to the construction of roads, bridges, and public works, and the maintenance and protection of the aborigines.

Power to be given to the Governor to increase the number of members of the Upper House under certain circumstances.

Provision to be made for the expansion of the Lower House without fresh legislation — namely, the electoral districts to be represented in the first instance by one or two members, according to the extent of the population ; and in the event of the population increasing beyond a certain number, the Governor to have power, upon an address grounded upon a petition from the voters to increase the members for such district from one to two, or, in the event of their having been two already, divide the district, but not so as to give a representative to less than 1000 rate-payers.

Responsible Government to be ensured by requiring that such official persons as may be appointed to conduct the business of the Government in the Lower House shall have been elected to their seats by some cops'huency. A member of the Lower House accepting, after his election, any office of profit or emolument under Government to vacate his seat, but to be eligible for re-election.

The present officers of Go\ernment having seats in Council to bo entitled to retiring pensions in the event of their non-election or their displacement by the Crown, through their inability to command a working majority. A civil lis-t to be reserved to the Crown, comprising certain salaries.

In the event of any change of administration, all officers of Government having seats in the Upper as well as those having seats in the Lower House, to be requiied to abandon their offices and emoluments, to the end that the system of responsible Government may be complete.

The power of appointment to all offices to remain in the Crown, acting through the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, &c. &c. Twenty-eight new electoral districts have been marked out of the thirty-six, to be the number under the new Constitution.

The new electoral districts of the colony are about to be arianged upon the basis not of territory, but of population. The Adelaide Times states :—": — " For instance, the growing importance of the Port Adelaide diatiiet is not thought to be sufficiently represented, and we shall have two members in place of one. Rome other districts, in which the population has increased in a like ratio, are favoured in like manner.' 1