First Municipality Established.--Brisbane Bridge Lands.--Grant for Town Hall.--Consolidating Municipalities Act.--Provincial Councils Act.--Government Buildings not Rateable.--Brisbane Bridge Debentures and Waterway Acts.--Municipal Endowment. --Local Government Act of 1878.--Divisional Boards Act of 1879; Success of the Act.--Local Works Loans Act.--Two Pounds for One Pound Endowment Repealed.--Rating Powers Extended by Local Authorities Act of 1902.--Cessation of Endowment. --Valuation and Rating Act.--Decline in Land Values. --Unequal Incidence of Rates Levied.--Efficiency of Local Authorities. When Sir George Bowen proclaimed the establishment of Queensland there was only one municipality within the boundaries of the new colony. Brisbane had been incorporated just three months earlier, probably with the view of having the Mayor of a local authority to take his part in the inaugural celebrations. At that time the New South Wales Municipal Institutions Act of 1858 was in force, but it was quite inadequate to the needs of the country. Sir George Bowen, coming from residence among the crowded populations of Great Britain and several European countries, and recognising what powerful safeguards to public liberty municipal corporations had proved, publicly urged the establishment of local government in Queensland on every favourable opportunity. In 1861 two Municipalities Acts were passed, one empowering the Brisbane City Council to build a bridge across the river, and providing for endowment in the form of grants of Crown land not exceeding two-thirds of the unsold town and suburban allotments of Brisbane; also empowering the council to borrow for the purpose of erecting the structure. The other Act gave extended powers to municipal councils generally. It defined the rateable value of unoccupied lands to be 8 per cent. of their actual capital value, but the minimum rate of any allotment was not to be less than 10s. per annum. It also provided that unoccupied land might be leased for fourteen years by a council when rates had been permitted to fall into arrear for a term of four years. It further empowered a council to borrow on mortgage a sum not exceeding the estimated revenue for the ensuing three years. As additional endowment, it was provided that the Governor in Council might pay to a municipal council every year one-third of the proceeds of land sold within its jurisdiction; and where one-half of the land in a municipality had been sold the council were to be entitled to one-half of the proceeds of future sales.