COACHING IN THE NSW RIVERINA. – The detailed web-site ‘Coaching in the NSW Riverina’ examines a subject of great importance to the understanding of Riverina history and the development of townships in the region. The web-site, created and maintained by Bill Strong, covers a variety of different aspects of coach travel, including sections on the drivers, horses, coaching routes and change-stations, coach designs and the artisans associated with the industry. The site is well-referenced and well worth an extensive look, as it contains much material pertinent to Hay and surrounding districts. The web-site address is http://www.wccwebdesign.00freehost.com/bill/index.html
1869-70 ELECTORAL ROLL. – The new web-page lists the men "qualified to vote for the Election of Members of the Legislative Assembly" for the Oxley Police District within the Balranald electorate. The data was transcribed directly from the Electoral Roll for the year 1869-70. The Oxley Police District straddled the adjoining Electoral Districts of Balranald and The Murrumbidgee. The western portion of the Oxley Police District within the Balranald electorate comprised an extensive area which included Booligal, Mossgiel, Maude, Pine Ridge (Booroorban) and Hay (though to the east it extended only to the nearby "Illillawa" and "Police Point" runs).
Entries for each elector contains the following information: number on the electoral roll; name; usual residence (whether within the Electoral District or not); qualification; and a column headed "Where Situate, or How Arising" indicating the location of the person’s residence or property within the Oxley district. Each sub-district within the Oxley Police District, as listed in the "Where Situate, or How Arising" column, is listed below in bold type, followed by the pastoral runs, villages, townships and other locations situated within each one.
Lachlan Back Blocks: Abbotsford, Alma, Ballingeramble, Bundarra, Bundungallong, Coen Down(s), Erimeram, Keginni, Merri Merrima, Moolbong, Mossgiel, Roto, Tarrawonga, Tiarri, Tom’s Lake, Yandambah.
Lachlan River: Bank station, Booberi, Booligal, Brucedale (?), Bullaree, Corrong, Cowl Cowl, Cudgelligo, Eight-mile Gums, Euabbalong, Four-mile Billabong, Gunniguldry, Hunthawang, Hyadra, Lake Walgeers, Merri Merrigal, Merrowee [Merrowie], Merungle, Mulla Mulla, North Uabba, Oxley, Redbank, Terrawang, Thelangerin, Thelangerin East, Thelangerin West, Tholonga, Tooloor, Tupruck, Uabba, Ulonga, Urunaway, Walgeers, Wallaby, Whealbah, Willandra, Wyadra.
Booligal Road: Nine-mile Box, One-tree, Quondongs.
Murrumbidgee River: Benduck, Canoon, Gelam, Hay, Illillawa, Maude, Mungadal, Nap Nap, Nimmie, Pevensey, Pimpampa, Police Point, Toogimbie, Toongoon, Wooloondool.
Old Man Plain: Black Swamp, Murandy, Nyangay, Pine Ridge, Tchelery, Wargam, Warwillah.
The 1868-70 Electoral Roll for the Oxley Police District within the Balranald Electoral District can be found here.
For those with an interest in the rest of the Balranald Electoral District (beyond the Oxley Police District), I have the full 1869-70 Electoral Roll on computer and would be happy to do look-ups. The Hay Library also has a digital copy of the complete Balranald Electoral Roll for 1869-70. Eventually I intend adding the eastern part of the Oxley Police District (the portion within The Murrumbidgee Electoral District) to the web-site database. As far as I’m aware there are no extant Electoral Lists earlier than 1869-70 for either Balranald or The Murrumbidgee (or for the pre-1859 Electoral District of Lachlan and Lower Darling); I would be pleased to hear from anyone who could prove me wrong.
ASPECTS OF HISTORY: HAY AND DISTRICT.
1869-70 ELECTORAL ROLL – BALRANALD ELECTORAL DISTRICT.
The electoral lists for 1869-70 in the Colony of New South Wales were compiled according to the provisions of the Electoral Act of 1858, passed on 24 November 1858 during the second administration of Charles Cowper, who was Colonial Secretary of New South Wales (on this particular occasion) from September 1857 to October 1859. Cowper was an English-born pastoralist and a politician of liberal views. The Electoral Act of 1858 provided for a secret ballot and gave the vote to most adult males.
Balranald Electoral District
Schedule A of the 1858 Electoral Act defines the geographical boundaries of the Balranald Electoral District in the following terms:
| Embracing the Pastoral Districts of Lower Darling and Albert and portions of those of Murrumbidgee and Lachlan and bounded on the south from the boundary between New South Wales and South Australia by the Murray River upwards to the confluence of the Wakool River and by that river to the confluence of the Edward River thence by the boundary between Messrs. Sylvester and Smith’s and Mr. Guerson’s runs northerly and the northern boundary of all the runs fronting on the Edward River below the confluence of the Billabong Creek and on that creek easterly to a point exactly south of the boundary between McLeay’s Mulberrygong Run and Clarke’s Burrabogie Run on the east by a line north to that boundary and by that boundary to the Murrumbidgee River by that river downward to the boundary between Rae’s Uardry Run and Oake’s Beabula Run thence by a line north to the Lachlan River at a point 5 miles below the Ballanjerambal Reserve thence by the Lachlan River upwards to the confluence of Kalingalungaguy Creek thence by a line north-westerly to Fort Bourke on the River Darling and by that river upwards to the point where the 30th parallel of south latitude meets it on the north by that parallel westerly to the boundary between New South Wales and South Australia and on the west by that boundary being the 141st meridian of east longitude southerly to the River Murray aforesaid. |
The Balranald electorate covered a vast area which comprised, either fully or partially, the following Police Districts: Oxley, Balranald, Wentworth, Mitchell and Bourke. The 1869-70 Electoral Roll for the Balranald Electoral District lists the electors according to the Police District where each elector resided and/or was a property-owner. The boundaries of the various Police Districts had been re-defined in 1865 and descriptions of the re-arranged boundaries were published in the New South Wales Government Gazette (Supplement) No. 211 of 13 October 1865.
The 1869-70 Electoral Roll for Balranald lists a total of 1,693 electors. The Police Districts within the Balranald Electoral District are listed in the table and chart below, showing the number and proportion of electors in each.
|
Police District |
Courts of Petty Sessions (1865) |
No. of Electors (1869-70) |
Proportion of Total |
|
Oxley |
Hay; Maude; Booligal |
602 |
35.6% |
|
Balranald |
Balranald |
185 |
10.9% |
|
Wentworth |
Wentworth; Euston |
395 |
23.3% |
|
Mitchell |
Menindee |
403 |
23.8% |
|
Bourke |
Bourke |
108 |
6.4% |
|
TOTAL: |
1,693 |
Electors - Qualification and Exclusion
The Electoral Act of 1858 defined the primary conditions for inclusion as an elector in New South Wales as:
| Every male subject of Her Majesty of the full age of twenty-one years being natural born or who being a naturalized subject shall have resided in this Colony for three years shall if qualified as in this section is provided and entered on the Roll of Electors and not disqualified or incapacitated for some cause hereinafter specified be entitled to vote at any Election for the Electoral District in respect of which he shall be so qualified… [Clause 9, Electoral Act of 1858] |
The Act defined certain exclusions: convicted criminals still serving their sentences, those "of unsound mind", and men "in receipt of and from any charitable institution". In addition members of the police force and those in naval or military service, as well as Police Magistrates, Clerks of Petty Sessions and collectors of electoral lists were ineligible to vote. Under the law Aborigines were "natural born" subjects of the Crown, and prima facie, qualified as electors. However there is evidence to suggest that, both locally and more widely within New South Wales, Aborigines tended to be systematically excluded from the franchise, probably by invoking the "charitable institutions" exclusion provision. For example, in April 1859 the 'Lower Murrumbidgee' correspondent to the Sydney Morning Herald wrote of the efforts of John Kelly, the Police Magistrate based at Deniliquin, to revise the Balranald electoral list, mainly by the addition of extra names. The report included: "The names of nearly one hundred aborigines were given in with the lists of persons claiming to vote, but it does not appear that any of their names were placed on the rolls".
Beyond the general qualification as an elector in Clause 9 of the Act outlined above, the Electoral Act stipulated that electors qualified by their status as a resident or property-holder within any one Electoral District. However, where an elector was both a resident and a property-holder within the same electoral district, the property qualifier – "freehold", "leasehold" or "household" – was the one listed.
- Electors qualified by residence if they lived in the Electoral District "at the time of making out the Electoral List" and were likely to remain in the District for the next six months. This provision ensured that most men qualified as electors. In the Oxley precinct of the Balranald Electoral District 78.7% of the electors on the list qualified solely by the residential provision. The residential requirement, however, was unsuited to workers with itinerant work-patterns and no home-base, such as many unmarried shearers and station-hands. As a result a number of these men were not registered as electors, particularly in pastoral regions such as the Balranald Electoral District. Many shearers and station-hands regularly moved from station to station throughout the year, often crossing from one Electoral District to another.
- The property qualification allowed for a person, whether or not a resident of the Electoral District, to be registered as an elector if he owned or leased property within the district "of the clear value of one hundred pounds or of the annual value of ten pounds respectively". Joseph Smith of Bathurst, for example, who leased the "Merrowie" run on the Lachlan River, was entitled to vote in the Balranald Electoral District. Property-owners residing outside the colony of New South Wales could also qualify under the property provisions. Francis Desailly and his brother George, who both resided in Melbourne and who leased runs between the Lachlan and Darling rivers (including "Mossgiel" station), were included on the Balranald Electoral List. A qualified voter in one electorate could also claim votes in other electorates where he owned property of the specified value. This principle of ‘plural voting’ remained a privilege of property-owning electors until it was abolished in 1893. In the Oxley precinct of the Balranald Electoral District 21.3% of the electors qualified under the property rules, 11% possessing leasehold land and the remainder freehold.
Collection and Revision
The Electoral Act of 1858 required the appointment of Collectors by the beginning of each year for each Police District in New South Wales. During January the appointed Collectors were to perform the duties of collecting and compiling "alphabetical Lists… of all persons qualified to vote within their respective Districts for the Election of Members of the Assembly".
| [The Collectors] shall deliver such Lists to the Clerks of Petty Sessions for the Police Districts for which such Collectors are appointed and each Collector shall keep a true copy of the List so delivered by him to be perused by any person at all reasonable hours without fee. And the Clerks of Petty Sessions shall forthwith cause copies to be printed or fairly transcribed of all such Lists and shall deliver a copy of any such List to any person requiring the same on payment of a reasonable fee for each copy and shall likewise cause copies of the Lists of their respective Police Districts to be fixed on the respective Court Houses thereof and in such other public places as may by the Court of Petty Sessions be directed for the period of fourteen days ending on the twenty-eighth day of February following. [Clause 17, Electoral Act of 1858] |
| Whenever any such Police District shall form portions of two or more Electoral Districts such Collectors and Clerks of Petty Sessions shall make separate Lists for each such portion. [Clause 19, Electoral Act of 1858] |
| It shall be lawful for the Courts of Petty Sessions of the several Police Districts as aforesaid to appoint any one or more members of the Police Force to be and perform the duties of Collector or Collectors of Electoral Lists in and for each such District. [New South Wales Government Gazette, 1867, p. 3237] |
Provision was made in the 1858 Electoral Act for an objection to be lodged against another person’s name on the List, or a case made by a person to have his name inserted. Such cases were to be furnished in writing to the Clerk of Petty Sessions by the 28th of February, to be made available "to be perused by any person" up until the 18th of March of the particular year prior to the annual Courts of Revision.
The Courts of Revision, which were usually held in March, were an opportunity for the local administrative authorities (the Police Magistrate, usually with the assistance of local Justices of the Peace) to review the collected names. On 18 March 1862, for example, a court for the revision of the electoral lists was held at Hay, presided over by the Police Magistrate Henry Shiell and assisted by Henry N. Loughnan, Thomas D’Archy and Gideon S. Lang, each of them J.P.’s and district squatters. In addition Dr. James Bailey, the local doctor, and John Downie of "Illilawa" station were appointed as temporary Justices "to assist in the business".
| There were no objections taken to the list of names, and the only change made was that of striking out the name of one person, who was deceased. Mr. Loughnan wished to have one person’s name erased, because he had changed his place of residence since the making up of the roll, but this objection was overruled, on the ground that the man was still in the same district. Although a great number of persons have left the district during the past year, and many, on the other hand, have arrived, the electoral list for the eastern division of the district of Balranald has remained almost the same, the number being only two less than it was last year. [Lower Murrumbidgee correspondent, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April 1862] |
When the revision process was completed the list of names was submitted to the Returning Officer of the relevant Electoral District, who combined the lists from the various Police Districts into the complete Electoral Roll.
| And such Returning Officer shall cause a general alphabetical Roll of the Electors of the whole Electoral District numbered in regular arithmetical progression to be fairly transcribed or printed with as little delay as possible from the Lists so delivered to him. And such general Roll shall be the Roll of Electors entitled to vote in each respective Electoral District at all Elections between the twelfth day of April inclusive in the year in which such Roll shall have been made and the twelfth day of April in the succeeding year and shall during that period be conclusive evidence of the title to vote of each Elector therein named unless disqualified or incapacitated for any of the causes hereinbefore mentioned. [Clause 26, Electoral Act of 1858] |
References:
An Act to Amend the Electoral Law [24th November, 1858]: 22 Victoria No. 20 – cited as "The Electoral Act of 1858". Boase, George Clement, ‘Lower Murrumbidgee’ correspondent, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 April 1859, 5(4); 1 April 1862, 5(6). George Boase, from county Devon in England, had obtained a position in August 1855 with the squatter Thomas D’Archy as tutor to D’Archy’s children at "Gelam" station (between Balranald and Lang’s Crossing-place on the Murrumbidgee River). In 1856 Boase began submitting articles to the Sydney Morning Herald, which were published regularly under the title "Lower Murrumbidgee [from our correspondent]". Chesterman, John, & Galligan, Brian, Citizens Without Rights, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1997. Davison, G., McCarty, J.W. & McLeary, A. (eds), Australians 1888, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, 1987. Kingston, Beverley, The Oxford History of Australia. Volume 3, 1860-1900. Glad, Confident Morning, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1988. New South Wales Government Gazette (various).