Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/531
(12th July 1819), indemnifying all Governors and other persons acting under them as regarded the past, and staying proceedings against them until 1st Jan. 1821. Till that day the Governor was empowered by the new Act to levy any of the duties previously existing, but not to raise the amount, though he might discontinue a duty. He was also empowered to levy an excise duty on spirits. The Acts 1 Geo. IV. cap. 62, and 1 and 2 Geo. IV. cap. 8, continued the law of 1819; and the 3rd Geo. IV. cap. 96 (30th March 1822), continued the duties, gave power to impose fresh duties on spirits and on tobacco, and an ad valorem duty on all other goods until 1st Jan. 1824. A maximum of fifteen shillings per gallon on spirits, four shillings per lb. on tobacco, and 15 per cent. ad valorem on other goods, was laid down for the limit of the Governor's discretion. He might reduce and revive duties.
Mr. Bigge's report bore immediate fruit in this Act as regarded import duties on wool, bark extract, and timber in England. He had shown how discouraging these duties were to the colony. From 5th Jan. 1823 to 5th Jan. 1826 it was to have been 3d. per lb., and after the 5th Jan. 1826 no less than 6d. per lb. By 3 Geo. IV. cap. 96 it was reduced to 1d. per lb. on wool, the product of New South Wales, and the duty on bark and timber, similarly produced, was abolished for ten years after the 1st Jan. 1823.
Something more than revenue required to be dealt with, however, and the New South Wales Judicature Act, 4 Geo. IV. cap. 96 (19th July 1823), remodelled the machinery of government. A Governor was no longer to be arbitrary. It was determined to reverse Macquarie's policy of discouraging the free element of the population. Immigration of free settlers was to be promoted. Such a community would require the law to be administered in conformity with constitutional usage. The first provision of the Act authorized the formation of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, with the necessary powers of a Court of Record.
The clause (4) which created a jury of "seven commissioned officers of His Majesty's sea or land forces" was hotly contested in the House of Commons, but was carried in spite of Sir J. Mackintosh's efforts to substitute the words "a jury of twelve men duly qualified to serve." In actions