Our First Half-Century Part 6

Thus was Queensland fairly launched on her career as a self-governing state of the Empire. The very announcement of impending separation had caused a rush of population from the southern colonies; while even the Crown tenants, who had for years regarded the movement with aversion, found much compensation in their escape from the operation of the imminent Robertson land law which threatened free selection before survey throughout the entire area of New South Wales. The rush for new pastoral country not only attracted the most adventurous bushmen in Australia to the new colony, but also sent up the prices of sheep and cattle to fabulous rates, as country tendered for could not be held unless stocked to the prescribed minimum number. At the time a large area of coast country was occupied by sheep, and symptoms of disease were so menacing that the sales for stocking up new country proved the salvation of some of the "inside" squatters; although looked at in the light of experience it may be doubted whether the too rapid occupation of the wilderness country, then inhabited solely by the aborigines, was not partly accountable for disastrous results when the demand for stocking up ceased, and the natural water on most runs proved wholly insufficient to carry stock through the mildest drought. Still, at the time Queensland attracted a population of seasoned Australians whose colonising value was inestimable; and these in addition to many immigrants from the mother country. Consequently the colony made phenomenal progress.

A glance at the official statistics for the year 1860--the earliest available--will ill.u.s.trate the insignificance, compared with the vast area of the territory held, of the population, trade, and liquid capital of the community. The total population on 31st December, 1860, was estimated at 28,056, most of these people being more or less concentrated in the towns. The rest were scattered spa.r.s.ely over the country between the southern boundary and the tropic of Capricorn for a distance of about 250 miles back from the coast-line. Rockhampton was then the most northerly port of entry; the site of the present town of Bundaberg was virgin forest, the entrance to the Burnett River from Hervey Bay being as yet unknown; Mackay, Bowen, Townsville, Ingham, Geraldton, Cairns, Port Douglas, Cooktown, and the Thursday Island settlement were non-existent; and of the coast waters beyond Keppel Bay little more was known than the narratives of Captain Cook and Lieutenant Flinders at the close of the eighteenth century disclosed.

The existence of the magnificent natural harbour of 1,000 miles in length formed by the Great Barrier Reef was undreamt of; the pa.s.sage was regarded rather as one of Nature's traps for the unwary navigator than the future safe and easily traversed route of great steams.h.i.+p lines along a coast dotted with prosperous ports kept busy as the outlets of a richly productive hinterland.

The tropical climate of the northern coast lands was then supposed to be deadly to members of the white races; the interior was declared to be almost entirely devoid of surface water--for the greater part of the year a fiery furnace, and at intervals of capricious periodicity ravaged by destructive floods. It was a.s.sumed to be a country where the white man would wither and the coloured man thrive--a land wholly unfit for the home of civilised peoples, and only adapted to the wants of the degraded aboriginal native. It was ignorantly affirmed that the sheep stations intended to be formed in the far western country must be failures, and English experts held that under the tropical sun the sheep, if it could live in Queensland at all, would soon carry hair instead of wool. Even in Southern Queensland the agricultural possibilities of the land were sadly unappreciated. True, in the population centres there were loud preachers of the gospel of reclamation of the wilderness so that it might bud and blossom as the rose; but their homilies for the most part fell upon deaf ears--the seasoned bushman, like the great squatter, tenaciously held that even the Darling Downs would not grow a cabbage.

So backward was the farming industry that in 1860 the total area under cultivation was 3,353 acres in a country of greater extent than France and Germany combined. Of this trifling cultivated area only 196 acres were under wheat, and not an acre under sugar-cane. True, there were nearly three and a-half million sheep, half-a-million cattle, and 24,000 horses finding subsistence on the limitless but ill-watered natural pastures. But at that time the annual clip from the sheep, though wool was the chief export of the colony, totalled only 5,000,000 lb., or equal to about 1 lb. to each fleece. Mining, except for coal, of which 12,327 tons was raised in 1860, was almost non-existent, although 2,738 fine ounces of gold are shown by the statistics to have been won during the year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TREASURY BUILDINGS, BRISBANE]

In 1860 there was not a mile of railway either open for traffic or under construction; not a mile of electric telegraph wire; nor, save between Brisbane and Ipswich, was there a formed or metalled road, the only avenues of transport being along the bridle path or the teamsters' track. The country was dest.i.tute of culverts and bridges over watercourses, and the so-called roads were impa.s.sable for days, weeks, or even months in succession after the seasonal rains. The northern s.h.i.+pping trade was limited to a small steamer running once a fortnight between Brisbane, Maryborough, and Rockhampton, but even that had been arranged after the proclamation of the colony, partly to meet administration exigencies, with the a.s.sistance of the new Government. A fortnightly steamer from Sydney ran direct to Maryborough, and another to Rockhampton, with the apparent object of discouraging mutual intercourse among the ports. A weekly steamer ran between Brisbane and Sydney, in addition to a few small sailing craft for cargo purposes.

Although Sir George Bowen declared that on arrival he found nothing in the Treasury save a few coppers, the revenue for the first year reached 178,589. The expenditure for the year 1860 was 17,086 less than the revenue, yet, through the Government having to lean upon the banks in December, 1859, there was an overdraft of over 19,000 at the end of the first year. But the banks themselves had little money among them, the net a.s.sets slightly exceeding half a million sterling, and the aggregate deposits totalling less than a quarter of a million. At the end of 1860, out of the 28,000 people in the colony 163 were "small capitalists" with an aggregate of 7,545, or about 46 per depositor, in the Savings Bank. Yet there were six charitable inst.i.tutions in which 397 persons found relief. Of subscribers to "public libraries" there were 538, and they had at their disposal 5,000 volumes from which to select reading for the leisure hour. There were 41 schools, with a total of 1,890 pupils. The number of letters posted showed a low degree of cultivation, for the average number posted as well as received by each person was just seven a year, or slightly more than one every two months. Of newspapers a rather fewer number pa.s.sed through the post office. Surely all these things were on a microscopic scale, recollecting that the people of Queensland had been endowed with autonomous government, and had unfettered control of more than one-fifth of the total area of Australia.

Old Queenslanders who still survive, and can meditate retrospectively upon the past, will be impressed with the marvellous optimism of all cla.s.ses of the population 50 years ago. The townspeople, enfranchised with most political power by reason of their numbers, knew little of the dormant resources of the inland country or its climatic vagaries.

They could not realise the privations, the hard labour, and the deadly monotony of early settlement upon the land. The farmer had usually no market, and in raising his produce he had to contend against droughts, floods, pests, and isolation, and he was fortunate if his produce brought from the store-keeper the cost of rations on which his family could frugally subsist. The squatter, too, incurred enormous risks, though he had a market for his wool at all times; and, if there was no domestic consumption of sheep and cattle upon which he could rely, his surplus stock brought a fair return from the boiling-down pots. But he had to get his produce to port before a money return could be secured; and as pastoral settlement pushed further out transport obstacles were often crus.h.i.+ng. It was no unusual occurrence for one wool clip to be detained on a remote station until the next year's shearing had commenced. A lien had therefore usually to be given on the clip, and the rate of interest, including agent's commission, was commonly 12 per cent. per annum, while the high carriage rate made rations extremely costly; so that even with good seasons the margin of profit was small. In bad years ruin became well-nigh inevitable. The pioneer squatter spent most of his strenuous life in the saddle, alternately worried by bad seasons, low prices, and his bank overdraft. It is easy, therefore, to understand the temptation which a.s.sailed him to regard as his own the country which he had reclaimed at the expense of his vitality as well as his capital. When he visited town after a term of voluntary exile human nature often a.s.serted itself, and the holiday-making squatter disbursed his hard-earned money with a prodigal hand, a fact not forgotten by his political opponents. The shepherd, too, yielded to temptation, and at the end of a year's solitary life in his bush hut longed for nothing so much as an alcoholic stimulant or a bottle of pickles and gay human society. Thus he prodigally knocked down his cheque in town, and in a week or two again abandoned civilisation at the call of the bush. Fifty years ago the urban people perhaps lived almost as comfortably as they do to-day, but the bushman, whether farmer, squatter, shepherd, or stockman, had usually a life of exhausting labour, bad food, dull surroundings, and often in consequence indifferent health. Still the landless colonist of 1860 had unbounded faith in his country; and if he fought earnestly, sometimes pa.s.sionately, against what he termed squatting encroachment, it is now apparent that had not the pastoral tenure been jealously limited by Parliament insurmountable obstacles would have been placed in the path of progress. In future pages of this work it will be seen that the often too sanguine antic.i.p.ations of individual colonists of Queensland's natal year were rudely shattered by stern experience; while, on the other hand, the opening up of unsuspected resources as often enriched the general community.

PART II.--FROM NATAL YEAR TO JUBILEE.

CHAPTER I.

THE LEGISLATURE.

The Governor.--His Functions: Political and Social.--His Emoluments.--Administrations that have held Office.--Number of Members of Council and a.s.sembly.--Emoluments of a.s.sembly Members.--Good Results of Responsible Government in Queensland.

In a self-governing dependency of the Empire the King's representative, while competent to take official action only on const.i.tutional advice, is not a mere figurehead in the Government.

He is, so to speak, one of the three branches of the Legislature.

No expenditure can be voted by Parliament except after receipt of a message of appropriation from the Governor; and no bill can become law without the Royal a.s.sent, which he, subject to certain reservations, is empowered to give. As President of the Executive Council, too, the Governor has a voice in administration, although the actual power vests in the Ministry so long as it commands the confidence of Parliament. But the Governor is in constant touch with his Premier, and therefore, apart from the official intercourse at meetings of the Executive Council, His Excellency exchanges ideas informally with the executive head of the Government. The Governor has social duties, too, and these are not unimportant as bringing the King's representative into personal contact with his Majesty's colonial subjects of both s.e.xes and various cla.s.ses. The Governor's attendance at public and social functions also furnishes a touch of sprightly colour to the drab shade which would otherwise often characterise public gatherings. He carries with him a distinctive atmosphere of Imperial comprehensiveness which usefully neutralises a narrow parochialism that might tend to induce men and women to forget that they, while a politically independent community, yet form an integral part of the great Empire of the Mistress of the Seas. Thus it is that our most experienced public men have emphasised the importance of maintaining direct communication with the Imperial authority through a Governor appointed by and responsible to the King.

Pending the decision of Parliament, the Imperial Government provisionally fixed the salary of the first Governor at 2,500 a year. In the session of 1861, Parliament, representing a population of 34,000 persons, not only voted an increase to 4,000, but also by statute made the payment retrospective as from 1st January, 1860. At this sum the salary remained until 1874, when Mr. Oscar de Satge, a member of the Opposition, carried a motion affirming the principle of an increase. This motion the Government accepted, and the salary was increased to 5,000 a year, at which figure it remained from that time until 1904, when it was reduced to 3,000. Three Governors successively filled the office for the fifteen years ending with November, 1874; and six for the thirty years between 1874 and October, 1904. In the latter year an amendment of the Const.i.tution Act was made by a bill introduced by the Government, reducing the salary of future Governors to 3,000, for reasons exhaustively set forth by the Premier in moving the second reading. The chief grounds of reduction, it may be mentioned, were the altered situation created by the establishment of the Commonwealth, and the steps of a similar character already taken in the Southern States.

Twenty-five Ministries have held office during the fifty-year period.

On that led by the late Sir Robert Herbert comment has already been made. It ended a useful Queensland career in 1866, after more than six years of office. The succeeding Macalister Ministry, with an interruption of eighteen days by a second Herbert Ministry of an ephemeral nature, and with reconstructions, lasted until August, 1867, when it was displaced by the Mackenzie-Palmer Administration. Mr.

Macalister was a clever politician; a concise and trenchant speaker; and a capital parliamentary leader in so far as the House work was concerned. But he was lacking in force, and his Ministry was, moreover, much in the nature of coalition representing both squatting and anti-squatting interests at a time when bitter controversy prevailed. Mr. (afterwards Sir) R. R. Mackenzie, who was held in general respect for his personal qualities, likewise lacked strength as a politician, and the real force behind him was Mr. (afterwards Sir) Arthur Hunter Palmer. His Ministry was at the time termed "pure merino," every member of it, save Mr. Pring, the Attorney-General, being identified with the pastoral industry.

In November, 1868, the Lilley Ministry was formed. It lasted only till April, 1870, and was more than once reconstructed during its tenure of office. It included Mr. Macalister, between whom and the Premier there was inconvenient rivalry, but its members were all Liberals by reputation. The Premier, however, was Radical rather than Liberal in his opinions, and his abolition of primary school fees without parliamentary authority, and the ordering of the steamer "Governor Blackall" in Sydney, with the object of fighting the A.S.N. Company, without the consent even of his colleagues, brought about the downfall of the Ministry as soon as Parliament met in 1870, only one supporter, the late Mr. Henry Jordan, voting with them in a division on a want of confidence motion. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Charles Lilley was perhaps the most accomplished debater that ever spoke in the Queensland Parliament, and throughout most of his public career, as the member for Fort.i.tude Valley, he was a popular hero. As an educationist he was undoubtedly both sincere and enthusiastic, but his colleagues found his imperious moods difficult to contend against.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COAL WHARVES, SOUTH BRISBANE]

The Palmer Ministry met Parliament in May, 1870, and held office for more than three and a-half years, although for a great part of the time the Government had no working majority. Indeed, for months it fought, with a majority of one in a full House of 32, a determined Opposition in the a.s.sembly ably led by Mr. Lilley. All business was blocked for many weeks, and eventually 13 members of the Opposition, headed by Mr. Lilley, waited as a deputation upon the Governor (Colonel Blackall) requesting his intervention on the ground that Ministers did not possess their confidence or the confidence of the House. The Governor declined to interpose, and subtly remarked that he had known many Oppositions in Parliament, but never yet knew one that had confidence in the Government of the day. The interview did not a.s.sist the Opposition cause. A second session opened on 5th July, 1870, and, being defeated two days later by 17 to 11, Mr. Palmer was granted a dissolution.[a] The Premier had proved himself an indomitable fighter, and his appeal to the const.i.tuencies was not wholly unsuccessful. Obstruction continuing in the new Parliament, Mr.

Palmer was granted another dissolution in June, 1871, and from that time had a fairly effective majority at his back for two years, when being defeated he was granted another dissolution, from which his party came back unsuccessful. If the Opposition of those days did not obstruct by means of the "stonewall" to the same extent that has been the case of recent years, they attained their end in another way. In the session of 1871-2 for a period of five weeks the Government failed to obtain a quorum except on two occasions, on both of which there was a "count out." The Opposition were desirous of forcing the Government to pa.s.s a Redistribution of Seats Bill before Supply was granted, and by persisting in these tactics they compelled the Government to agree to a compromise.

The Palmer Ministry on a.s.suming office had found the public finances in a bad way, but partly through good management and partly with the help of good seasons and improving markets for exports, they retired in January, 1874, after a succession of surpluses, and with railway construction being vigorously pushed on both in Southern and Central districts.

In January, 1874, when the new Parliament met after the general election, Mr. Palmer and his colleagues found themselves in so hopeless a minority that they resigned without awaiting a debate on the Address in Reply. Amidst great hilarity in the a.s.sembly, and despite the vehement protests of the candidate, Mr. William Henry Walsh was elected Speaker, although a member of the Palmer party; and on his refusal to accept the office was humorously threatened with the penalty of disobedience to the order of the House. But after consideration he a.s.sumed the Speakers.h.i.+p, and while in the chair discharged his duties with credit.

The Macalister-Hemmant Ministry forthwith a.s.sumed office, Mr. Lilley, who made the announcement in the a.s.sembly on their behalf, declining a portfolio. Shortly afterwards he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court. The Ministry was initiated with Mr. MacDevitt as Attorney-General, but in August following he retired, and Mr. S. W.

Griffith, who had proved an inconvenient supporter of the Government as the leader of a subsection, accepted the portfolio. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas McIlwraith was Mr. Macalister's Minister for Works, but at the close of the first session he differed from the Premier on the question of a great private railway scheme, and therefore resigned office. On the House rea.s.sembling in 1875 Mr. McIlwraith took the front cross-bench seat next the gangway on the Opposition side, and, while not approving of all the tactics of the party led by Mr. Palmer, gave it his general support. The first session of the Parliament had been distinguished by the pa.s.sing of a Customs tariff incidentally protective, Mr. Hemmant, the Treasurer, showing uncommon qualities as a financial speaker. He closed his first year at the Treasury with an apparent deficit of 200,762. His predecessor, when making his Financial Statement in 1872, had antic.i.p.ated a deficit. To prevent this he proposed--and Parliament agreed to the proposition--to transfer 350,000 from the Loan Fund to the Consolidated Revenue Fund to meet the Treasury bills floated or authorised to cover the acc.u.mulated deficits of earlier years. Mr. Hemmant disapproved of this method of financing, and rectified matters as far as possible by transferring to a Surplus Revenue Fund 240,000, which left him with a deficit of 200,762. This was equivalent to recouping the Loan Fund to the extent of 240,000, as the money was to be used for public works which would, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, have been constructed out of loan moneys. In the next year, 1876, soon after the opening of Parliament, the appointment of the Premier as Agent-General was announced. Ministers consequently resigned, and the Governor (Mr. W.

W. Cairns) sent for Mr. George Thorn, who to the surprise of political circles succeeded in forming a Ministry including Mr. Griffith and most of the late Cabinet. Mr. Thorn was personally a general favourite, but not conspicuously fit for the position which he had fortuitously attained. Mr. Griffith became the actual leader, however, and the session was completed without disaster. During the recess Mr.

Thorn retired, to visit England, and was replaced in the Cabinet by Mr. John Douglas, whose scholarly speeches had given him a high reputation in the House. As Premier, however, Mr. Douglas was less successful than had been antic.i.p.ated. Conspicuously fair in debate, he appeared invariably to feel the force of his opponents' arguments more than those on his own side of the House, and therefore his leaders.h.i.+p wanted decision; but the sessions of 1877 and 1878 were pa.s.sed through without any defeat compelling a premature dissolution.

The Liberal Ministries from 1874 to 1878 had been fertile in legislation, but after the retirement of Mr. Macalister they were badly led, Mr. Griffith, who attained the Attorney-Generals.h.i.+p at the age of twenty-nine, having been unwisely kept in the background on the plea of political immaturity. It was evident, however, that chiefly to him the pa.s.sage of all important measures of legislation had been due.

The colony suffered severely from drought during the years 1876-7-8; financial depression was the inevitable result, and, as usual under such circ.u.mstances, the Government lost popularity.

In November, 1878, the general election resulted in the return of a House determined to effect a change of Administration. On the new Parliament a.s.sembling in January, 1879, Ministers were at once defeated, and Mr. McIlwraith was sent for by the Governor. He met Parliament a few days afterwards with colleagues representing all parts of the colony, and obtained a four months' recess in which to mature his policy. On Parliament rea.s.sembling in mid-May, however, the position of the Government was less strong than had been antic.i.p.ated.

During the recess they had been retrenching sharply, and a number of dismissals from the Ipswich railway workshops were declared to be tainted with partizans.h.i.+p. At no time in the first session, in a test division, did the Government sit with a majority of more than six, and usually they commanded only two or three. The Opposition, led by Mr. Griffith, were always at their posts, and the Government were frequently on the verge of defeat. The pa.s.sing of a Three-million Loan Act and of the Divisional Boards Act, however, strengthened the Government's position, and in the following session the Torres Strait mail contract, making Brisbane the Australian terminus, though opposed by stonewalling measures for six consecutive weeks, added to their popularity.

In the session of 1880 grave accusations were made against the Premier by Mr. Hemmant, who had taken up his residence in England. Mr.

Hemmant presented a pet.i.tion to Parliament charging the Premier with complicity in certain transactions connected with the purchase of a large quant.i.ty of steel rails for the Government which had involved Queensland in a heavy loss. The matter was referred to a select committee, on whose recommendation a Royal Commission was appointed to take evidence in England. Mr. Griffith visited London during the recess, and acted as honorary counsel for Mr. Hemmant. The Commission exonerated the Premier, but a great deal of party animosity was engendered, which did not die out for several years.

In 1883 Sir Thomas McIlwraith ordered the British flag to be hoisted at Port Moresby, in Eastern New Guinea, annexing to the Empire that portion of Papua not already claimed by the Dutch, an act which showed true statesmans.h.i.+p and prophetic vision. Unfortunately, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Earl Derby, repudiated the annexation on the ground that it was a usurpation of the sovereign rights of the Imperial authorities. At the same time he acknowledged the patriotic motives which had inspired the Premier of Queensland, and declared that the British Government would regard any attempt at annexation by a foreign Power as an unfriendly act. Whatever may have been the views of political parties at the time, matured judgment formed in the light of subsequent events endorses the action of Sir Thomas. The hoisting of the German flag on the northern portion of the territory annexed by Sir Thomas has brought a foreign Power almost to our doors, and too late the home Government endeavoured as far as possible to retrieve their blunder by annexing the south-eastern portion of Papua, which was handed over to the Commonwealth after federation.

In the same year, the Premier, who had for many years been a strong advocate of railway construction by private enterprise on the land-grant principle, brought forward a bill authorising the construction of what was commonly called the Transcontinental Railway, from Charleville to Point Parker, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Against this proposal great popular clamour arose; the majority of the squatting members of the a.s.sembly combined with the Opposition, and the second reading of the bill was negatived by 27 votes to 16. Sir Thomas McIlwraith, rightly regarding the rejection of the measure as equivalent to a vote of want of confidence, advised the Administrator of the Government, Sir J. P. Bell, to dissolve the a.s.sembly. His Excellency accepted the advice, and the Premier asked for five months' Supply. Mr. Griffith, the greatest const.i.tutional authority in Queensland, approved of the decision of the Administrator of the Government, only objecting to Supply being given for such a length of time. However, the House, by 24 to 19, agreed to pa.s.s the Supply asked for, and the dissolution took place in the middle of July.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXECUTIVE BUILDINGS, BRISBANE]

The Opposition, led by Mr. Griffith, were returned with a large majority. Being defeated on the election of a Speaker and in two subsequent divisions, the Government resigned. Mr. Griffith was sent for, and formed a strong Administration. Parliament adjourned from November to January, when some pressing legislation was pa.s.sed at once, including the repeal of the Railway Companies Preliminary Act, under which proposals were made by railway syndicates. On 6th March Parliament was prorogued until 8th July.

The Premier had chosen as his Lands Minister Mr. Charles Boydell Dutton, a Liberal Barcoo squatter, with no previous experience of parliamentary life, but a determined land reformer. With the Premier's aid Mr. Dutton got the Land Act of 1884 safely through, and the Government secured credit for pa.s.sing a most important measure of reform, one important change being the introduction of grazing farm leases, and another the resumption of the halves of all runs included in a comprehensive schedule of the unsettled districts. But the historical measure of the session and the decade was the Ten-million Loan Bill, which embodied a grand scheme for providing the entire colony with railways. The Opposition protested against the loan as unconst.i.tutional on the ground that it covered a programme of railway construction which could not be completed for several years, but they dared not oppose any specific railway, and the bill pa.s.sed without amendment. Sir Thomas McIlwraith retired from the a.s.sembly in 1886, and during the whole life of the Parliament the Opposition found themselves helpless to resist the domination of the Ministry. But as the Administration aged its political force waned, and in 1887 the Treasurer, Mr. (afterwards Sir) J. R. d.i.c.kson, and Mr.

Macdonald-Paterson retired from the Ministry because of their disagreement with a land tax proposed in Cabinet by the Premier.

Despite the large loan expenditure, too, there was a portentous succession of deficits, due to unfavourable seasons, and Sir Samuel Griffith found in 1887 that his Government and party had outlived their popularity.

Like his great rival, Sir Samuel gave abundant proof during his tenure of office of broad statesmanlike conceptions. No public man in Australia has done more to foster the federal spirit and bring about the union of the Australian colonies. He played a foremost part in creating the Federal Council, and to him is due the credit of drafting in 1887 the measure which was pa.s.sed by all the colonial Parliaments granting a subsidy to an auxiliary Australasian naval squadron, although parliamentary vicissitudes robbed him of the honour of pa.s.sing the bill in his own State until 1891. He is also ent.i.tled to the credit of making provision for the administration of British New Guinea by Queensland.

In April, 1888, Parliament was dissolved, and when the new Parliament met in June the enfeebled Griffith Government were promptly ejected from office. Sir Thomas McIlwraith came in with a strong following, and he at once formed a Ministry which seemed likely to endure for several years. But at the close of the first session Sir Thomas retired from the Premiers.h.i.+p with a view to visiting England on business. Mr. Boyd Dunlop Morehead then succeeded to the leaders.h.i.+p.

In September, 1889, Sir Thomas McIlwraith resigned his seat in the Ministry, and the following session he appeared in the a.s.sembly as an open opponent of his late colleagues. To make provision for a revenue deficit, the Government brought down a proposal for a general property tax. This quickly brought Sir Thomas McIlwraith into concerted action with Sir Samuel Griffith, then leading the Opposition, and caused the resignation of the Ministry in August, 1890. Almost immediately the Griffith-McIlwraith Ministry was announced. A year or two earlier such a fusion of parties would have been deemed impossible, but the two leaders had fought away their mutual differences, and the financial outlook was so alarming that the coalition was generally admitted to be imperative. The new Government carried many important measures, and effected material improvement in the finances.

In March, 1893, just before the banking catastrophe occurred, Sir Samuel Griffith accepted the Chief Justices.h.i.+p, and Sir Thomas McIlwraith a.s.sumed the Premiers.h.i.+p. A dissolution followed, the Government securing a commanding majority in the new a.s.sembly. But the Premier's health failed, and in October following his Ministry was merged into that of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Hugh Nelson. Sir Thomas retained office without portfolio until March, 1895, when his connection with the Government ceased, though he retained his seat as a member of the House until the dissolution in 1896. After resigning office he left the colony, and died in England on 17th July, 1900.

The new Premier proved a most capable financier, and although the depression in financial, commercial, and industrial affairs continued with great intensity he turned successive deficits into annual surpluses, and was soon enabled to negotiate loans in the London money market on unprecedently favourable terms. In April, 1898, Sir Hugh Nelson resigned Ministerial office and accepted the President's chair in the Legislative Council, that post having just become vacant by the death of Sir Arthur Palmer. Mr. Thomas Joseph Byrnes succeeded to the Premiers.h.i.+p, and with Mr. Robert Philp as Treasurer it appeared as though the reconstructed Government had before it a life of several years. Five months afterwards, however, the young, brilliant, and much-esteemed Premier was removed by death, and Mr. d.i.c.kson was called to the Premiers.h.i.+p. Fifteen months later the d.i.c.kson Government suffered defeat, and resigned office.

Mr. Anderson Dawson, the Labour leader in the a.s.sembly, being sent for, a.s.sumed the Premiers.h.i.+p with six other Labour colleagues, but was defeated immediately he met Parliament a few days later, and resigned.

He was succeeded by Mr. Philp, who a.s.sumed office on 7th December, 1899. There had been a drought in most parts of the West for a year or two previously, but wool prices were high, and better seasons were antic.i.p.ated. The country had almost recovered from the blow sustained in 1893. Federation threatened some loss of revenue, but compensation was looked for in the enhanced prosperity resulting from interstate free trade. But for the two first years of the twentieth century there was everywhere in the State a very deficient rainfall, and in most inland parts absolute droughts. The double loss to the Treasury through Federation and parsimonious Nature was very serious. Mr.

Philp made reductions in public service expenditure, but kept loan expenditure at the normal level, sanguine that when the change came there would be a swift recovery, and hesitating to add to the depression by suspending the construction of railways and other public works. Though by the end of June, 1903, the acc.u.mulated deficit exceeded a million sterling, and the general election of 1902 had given the Government a rather diminished majority, there appeared to be no apprehension of a crisis even when Parliament met for its second session in July, 1903. But the weight of successive deficits and the protracted tenure of the "Continuous Ministry" inspired a general desire for change; and, in September, Mr. Philp suddenly found himself without adequate support as the result of a number of influential Government supporters joining forces with the members of the Labour party.

A new Ministry was at once formed, the Speaker, Mr. Arthur Morgan, resigning the chair and a.s.suming the Premiers.h.i.+p, Mr. William Kidston joining him as Treasurer. With a policy of retrenchment and reform the new Administration entered upon its career sustained by a strong backing of public opinion. Retrenchment had already been initiated by the late Government, and it was continued by Mr. Morgan and his colleagues. The bottom of the depression having been touched with the break-up of the drought, the financial year 1903-4 closed with a merely nominal deficit. In the next session, which opened in May, 1904, the Government encountered so much opposition that a dissolution was granted in July. So strongly were the const.i.tuencies in favour of the retention of office by Ministers that their party numbered 55 in a House of 72 when the new Parliament met in September, and the Government in that and the three following sessions were accordingly able to carry many of their measures of reform.

In January, 1906, the death of Sir Hugh Nelson created a vacancy in the Presidency of the Legislative Council. The Premier, who had earned a reputation during his four years' occupancy of the Speaker's chair for an intimate and comprehensive knowledge of parliamentary procedure, was generally designated as peculiarly fitted to succeed to the position of President; and, having resigned both the Premiers.h.i.+p and his seat as a member of the a.s.sembly, he was translated to the Legislative Council.