Chapter Xx. Two Defunct Public Bodies
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CHAPTER XX. TWO DEFUNCT PUBLIC BODIES, SYNOPSIS -.—Precis op the Markets Act (M.S. W.)—The Initiatory Meeting.—How Market Street was created. -First Market Election and its result.—First Meeting op the Commission.—Opening op the Markets. —Officers op the Commission— Mr-fames 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. ^H'HOUGH 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 yvas the first legally constituted electoral body in Port Phillip it is to be hoped that a brief precis of some of the provisions of the Legislative talisman by which it yvas called into existence, may not be uninteresting. Il 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 tyventy-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 yvere four thousand inhabitants, the toyvn should be divided into not less than three Wards, with not less than tyvo Commissioners for each. The Governor yvas to appoint a Returning Officer and three Scrutineers for each election, whether of Town or Ward. All Elections were confined to one day betyveen 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 yvas 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 ofthe town, and a qualified occupier or proprietor; if the latter, he yvas 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, yvas 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 yvere 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 254 THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE. to be filled up by the Commissioners within fourteen days of their occurrence. The Commission was invested with the supreme control of the town markets, and could purchase, accept, take, receive, and hold any lands, messuages, tenements, hereditaments, &c, for the purposes of the Act. It could elect its Chairman, make bye-laws, and appoint and remove its Treasurer, Secretary, Clerk of Markets, Inspectors or any inferior officers, and pay them reasonable salaries. It could also fix the places for holding markets, and erect market-houses, shambles, stalls, and arrange the scale of charges for using same, &c, &c. ; and persons selling in other places than their own shops or dwellings, marketable commodities, except in markets, were liable to a ,£5 penalty. The Commission could also borrow on security of the market revenues a sum not exceeding ,£2000, and whenever it numbered more than seven members, a sub-committee of not less than three could be appointed, with power to exercise the functions of the whole, subject, however, to the approval of the general body, which was required to hold meetings at least once in every three months. The requisite initiatory meeting was held at the Melbourne Police Office on the 21st January, 1841, Mr. James Simpson presiding; and there yvas no difference of opinion as to the pressing want of market accommodation. The resolution affirming the propriety of making the necessary application to the Governor was agreed to, and it yvas also resolved to bring under His Excellency's notice an omission in the laying out of the town, viz, the non-existence of any street, from Collins to Flinders Streets, at the eastern side of the square space intended to form one of the market sites, and requesting the formation of a street. [This, as previously stated, yvas primarily suggested by Mr. Russell, when Clerk of Works, and being now renewed yvas endorsed by the Government, and Market Street was duly proclaimed as such.] The application was forwarded in due course to Sydney, but the Executive did not seem to be in a hurry in dealing with it, for the year was yvell advanced before the Gazette notice appeared. The Vice-regal approval was at length promulgated, the town was subdivided into four Districts or Wards, the 12th October, 1841, appointed for the electoral registration before the Petty Sessions Court, and the 2nd November as election day. Major St. John as Police Magistrate yvas to act as Returning Officer and Messrs. Thomas Wills, Skene Craig, and J. B. Were were nominated Scrutineers. There was very little excitement at the election, unless amongst the free and independent supporters of Mr. John Pascoe Fayvkner, one of the candidates, who kept open house for his retainers at an old one-storied tavern known by the patriotic designation of the William Tell, situated on "The Block" in Collins Street, close by the corner of Queen Street. The Fawknerites entered into the business with spirit, and, as their leader believed in producing a dramatic effect, he hoisted the blue colour as his cognisance, and his myrmidons, decked out in enormous blue rosettes, yvere to be seen shouting and jumping everywhere. As for the irrepressible candidate himself, he was almost entirely encased in blue, and absolutely ubiquitous in his endeavours to rally those upon whose votes he calculated. At this time he yvas a light heeled, yviry, mercurial little man, and though Lonsdale Ward yvas in many places cut up by rut or ravine, Fawkner kept hopping about all day, clearing every obstacle with the agility of a yvallaby. Public curiosity was compelled to remain unsatisfied until the next day, when the names of the yvinners (without the numbers polled) were read by the Returning Officer, at the Police Court, as follows :— The north-west (now Bourke) Ward, Dr. F. M'Crae and Mr. John Stephen ; the south-yvest (now Lonsdale) Ward, Messrs. George Arden and J. P. Fawkner; the north-east (now Gipps) Ward, Messrs. James Simpson and James Dobson ; the south-east (now Latrobe) Ward, Messrs. George Porter and John J. Peers. One Candidate was defeated in each of the Wards, i.e., Mr. William Kerr (a journalist), for Bourke ; Mr. Francis Nodin (a merchant), for Lonsdale ; Mr. Redmond Barry (barrister), for Gipps ; and Mr. Wm. Locke (merchant), for Latrobe. It was said that Mr. Barry had been nominated without his consent or knowledge, and took no interest in the proceedings. On the whole, a very good selection yvas made, and one of a tolerably representative character. The Commissioners held their first meeting at the Police Office on the 8th November, 1841, when Mr. Simpson was appointed Chairman, to the infinite dissatisfaction of Major St. John, who, as Police Magistrate, was an ex officio member, and in those days of official arrogance, he regarded the post as his almost by right; but he only scowled and sulked, and said nothing. The Commission proceeded to a consideration of the number of markets necessary, and decided on three, i.e., (1), A principal market for the sale of fruit, vegetables, fish, butchers' meat, and poultry (2), a cattle-market, and (3), a market for the THE CHRONLCLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE. 255 disposal of hay and corn. For market No. i tyvo sites were approved, i.e. (a), what was then commonly called the Market Square (now Western Market), and (b), a portion of the vacant land between Swanston Street and Newtown (the now Eastern Market)—the first (or Western), to be immediately established, and the other (Eastern), to remain in abeyance.