For the first three years of responsible government, New South Wales included vast northern districts that would in 1859 separate into the colony of Queensland. Frontier conflict was rife there, northern settlers insisting they needed stronger police support, and the government attempted to control it by expanding the Native Mounted Police, a body with white officers and Indigenous troopers. Several government inquiries considered this issue, but once the northern districts separated, frontier violence came rapidly to be seen by NSW colonists as far away in space and time. Liberal governments in New South Wales in these years were, however, scarcely egalitarian in their attitudes to Aboriginal people in their own colony. Once the Electoral Act introducing near universal male suffrage was passed in 1858, politicians were astonished to learn that their constitution meant they had unwittingly enfranchised Aboriginal men. Some thought they should immediately legislate to prevent Aboriginal men from voting, but given the constitutional implications, this was abandoned. In general, Aboriginal policy remained a low priority; liberal governments adopted policies of minimal care, waiting for Aboriginal people to disappear. However, this combination of a healthy economy and government