Physical description

The Victorian Statutes Vol 3 Various Legal Statues /Warrnambool
Publisher: John Ferres Government Printer Melbourne
Date: 1866
Further Information: Three quarter leather. Corners worn lettering in gilt.

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

Title of Volume to Spine and Front Cover

Summary

This volume is part of the first comprehensive consolidation of laws for the Colony of Victoria after it separated from New South Wales and established its own parliament. Specifically, Volume 3 is the final part of the core "Public and General" Victorian colonial laws. The first three volumes of the 1866 consolidation were organised alphabetically by legal topic. Volume 3 specifically contains all the major public acts running from P to W.
Because it covers the tail end of the alphabet, it holds some of the most critical laws that built day-to-day society in 19th-century Victoria.
These include:
· Police Offences and Public Order: The legal frameworks for policing the goldfield boomtowns, managing public behaviour, and running early colonial prisons.
· Public Works and Infrastructure: The acts authorising the construction of roads, bridges, and early municipal water supplies across the fast-growing colony.
· Railways: The specific general legislation governing the expansion of Victoria's heavily subsidised, state-expanding railway networks.
· Property and Land Transfer: Crucial laws managing land ownership, inheritance, and the foundational transfers of property as the colony shifted away from old squatter runs to permanent towns.
· Wines, Beer, and Spirits: The colonial acts regulating the licensing of hotels and public houses, and managing the highly lucrative, tightly controlled alcohol trade.