Photo: Andy Farnsworth
Inscription
REPRESENTATIVE & RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT Representative Government was granted by Great Britain in 1832, after a campaign by prominent residents. Males over the age of 21 had the right to vote for their own legislators. The first sitting of a newly elected government took place at the King's Inn in St. John's on January 1, 1833. Communities on the French Shore, between Cape St. John and Cape Ray, and all of Labrador were excluded from representation in the House of Assembly. The French Shore was included after France renounced rights to the territory in 1904. There were no seats for Labrador until Confederation with Canada in 1949. Responsible Government was granted to Newfoundland in 1855, putting it on a par with other British North American possessions. The Executive and Legislative Councils generally deferred to the House of Assembly, making all branches of the Legislature ultimately responsible to voters. The number of districts and seats in the House of Assembly increased, going from nine districts and 15 seats to 15 districts and 29 seats. Responsible Government ended when the House of Assembly voted itself out of existence in 1933. Members of the House of Assembly at their desks, ca. 1909. "It is with feelings of inexpressible pleasure that we announce to our readers the interesting and important fact that the Parent Government has at length acceded to the prayer of the oft-repeated petition of the inhabitants of Newfoundland, and has conceded to it all the rights, privileges, and immunities, which are to be derived from a Local Representative Government established upon the principles which obtain elsewhere in the British trans-atlantic dominions." — The Public Ledger, March 27, 1832. "Her Majesty's Government have come to the conclusion that they ought not to withhold from Newfoundland those institutions, and that system of civil administration which, under the popular name of responsible government, have now been adopted in all Her Majesty's neighbouring possessions in North America." — Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne, Colonial Secretary, to Newfoundland Governor, Sir Ker Baillie Hamilton, February 21, 1853.