60 



AUSTRALASIA. 



of closer settlement, issuing debentures for such 

 lands not to exceed 30.000 a year. 



Victoria. The Legislative Council is composed 

 of 48 members, elected by owners of property worth 

 10 a year or leasehold valued at 25 a year, occu- 

 pants of rented property, and members of the pro- 

 fessions or graduates of universities. The Legisla- 

 tive Assembly has 95 members, elected by universal 

 manhood suffrage. In 1895 there were 145,629 

 electors for the Legislative Council in the registers, 

 and 249,576 electors for the Assembly. 



The Governor is Lord Brassey, appointed in 1895. 

 The Cabinet in the beginning of 1896 was composed 

 of the following-named members: Premier and 

 Treasurer, George Turner; Chief Secretary and 

 Minister of Public Instruction, A. J. Peacock ; At- 

 torney-General, Isaac Isaacs ; Solicitor-General, H. 

 Cuthbert; Commissioner of Trade and Customs, 

 President of the Board of Land and Works, and 

 Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey, R. \V. 

 Best; Postmaster-General, J. G. Duffy: Minister 

 of Defense, W. McCulloch ; Minister of Mines and 

 Water Supply, H. Foster ; Minister of Agriculture 

 and Commissioner of Public Works, J. W. Taver- 

 ner ; Minister of Railways, H. R. Williams ; with- 

 out office, A. McLean, R. T. Vale, and Joseph Major 

 Pratt, 



The party in power in Victoria is the Radical 

 party, which entered office to defend the system of 

 protection, though afterward Mr. Turner conciliated 

 the Opposition by consenting to a general reduction 

 of the tariff. The Premier has been criticised by 

 his opponents for taking his orders from the Labor 

 party, which in this colony holds the balance of 

 power ; but Mr. Turner, in regarding the Labor 

 representatives as his natural allies, is entirely con- 

 sistent with the traditions of his party. 



With the population stationary and trade languish- 

 ing, the deficiency in the revenue continued, com- 

 pelling the Government to devote the session chiefly 

 to measures of economy. The estimates showed a 

 deficit of 150,000 for the year, caused by the drought 

 and reduced railway income. The chief proposal 

 was a reformed railroad administration. Under 

 the pressure of the Radicals and Socialists the rail- 

 roads have been managed with the aim of giving 

 the people accommodation at the lowest possible 

 rates, and they continued to be run at a loss until 

 the financial exigencies of the Government com- 

 pelled the majority to consent to a reform of their 

 administration that will make both ends meet. 

 The railroad bill, as passed in February after a con- 

 tention between the two houses, placed the man- 

 agement of the railroads in the hands of a single 

 commissioner, who receives a salary of 3,500. lie 

 will consult with an advisory board composed of 

 the heads of departments, but is not bound to ac- 

 cept their advice. Political influence is abolished, 

 and the power of the Minister of Railways reduced 

 to a minimum. Mr. Matheson, Commissioner of 

 Railways in Queensland, was appointed to the post 

 of commissioner. 



The Parliament reassembled on June 22. The 

 measures promised by the Government comprised 

 bills for advances to agricultural producers ; to 

 minimize sweating in shops and factories ; to amend 

 the companies act and the insolvency act ; to reor- 

 ganize the management of charities : to regulate 

 the export of live stock, meat, dairy produce, and 

 fruit, and to provide thorough and efficient inspec- 

 tion before exportation; to regulate undesirable 

 immigration, especially of destitute Asiatics; to 

 establish a tribunal for the settlement of industrial 

 .disputes ; and a bill for the suppression of usury. 

 Propositions for amending the Constitution and the 

 electoral laws were also promised. Following the 

 suggestion of the Sydney conference, the Govern- 



ment brought in a bill to enable Victorian troops to 

 be employed in case of necessity for the defense of 

 any portion of Australia. Mr. Turner introduced 

 a bill establishing a state bank to absorb the sav- 

 ings banks, with authority to issue notes and to 

 make advances on the basis of the Credit Foncier 

 system to farmers, graziers, and vine growers up to 

 two thirds of the value of the property. A com- 

 mission appointed to inquire into the position and 

 prospects of the irrigation trusts condemned the 

 ministry that had expended the loans on these 

 works, some of which had been undertaken in 

 places where water was not obtainable, while in 

 other instances advances had been made recklessly 

 under political pressure to private trusts, the result 

 of the whole mismanagement being an annual loss 

 to the state of 60,000 in interest. The constitu- 

 tional amendment, introduced in September, pro- 

 vided for female suffrage and abolition of plural 

 voting. 



Queensland. The legislative power is vested in 

 a Parliament of 2 houses. The Legislative Council 

 consists of 41 members, who are nominated for life 

 by the Crown. The Legislative Assembly has 72 

 members, elected by the suffrage of all male adults 

 who have resided six months in the colony. Pos- 

 sessors of freehold or leasehold lands worth 10 a 

 year have additional votes. There were 79,660 

 registered voters in 1894. The Governor is Lord 

 Lamington, appointed in 1895. The members of 

 the ministry in the beginning of 1895 were : Premier, 

 Vice- President of the Executive Council, Chief Sec- 

 retary, and Colonial Treasurer, Hugh Muir Nelson ; 

 Minister for Lands and Agriculture, A. H. Barlow ; 

 Postmaster-General, A. J. Thynne; Secretary for 

 Mines, Secretary for Public Works, and Secretary 

 for Railways, Robert Philp ; Secretary for Public 

 Instruction, D. II. Dalrymple; Colonial Secretary, 

 Jl.Tozer; Attorney-General, T.J.Byrne; without 

 portfolios, W. H. Wilson and Sir Thomas Mcll- 

 wraith. 



Labor and socialistic legislation has tended of 

 late years in Australia to break up the old parties, 

 which, while calling themselves Liberals and Con- 

 servatives, were often divided only on the question 

 as to which party should control the administra- 

 tion and the offices.. In all the colonies the Labor 

 party has for some years past held the position of a 

 third party, aspiring, often with success, to turn the 

 voting balance at critical moments and exact new 

 labor legislation as the price for sustaining or up- 

 setting the ministry. Now a division is beginning 

 to manifest itself throughout Australia between 

 those electors who are disposed to support and 

 those who have a disposition to oppose the social- 

 istic legislation that figures prominently in the pro- 

 gramme of the Labor party. The parliamentary 

 leaders who are wholly opposed to the socialistic 

 tendencies have insisted that their opponents should 

 frankly declare their position on these questions, 

 and hence the lines between the parties have be- 

 gun to follow the cleavage between the element 

 opposed to state socialism, whether the party name 

 be Conservatives, Liberals, or Progressives, and that 

 which sympathizes strongly with the Labor party 

 and harbors socialistic ideas. In the Queensland 

 elections, which were concluded on April 11, 1896, 

 Mr. Nelson succeeded in putting the issue plainly 

 before the electors, and received a decided answer 

 in support of his Conservative views. The Labor 

 leaders, on their part, made an open appeal for the 

 acceptance of the most advanced socialistic prin- 

 ciples of Government, even proposing the division 

 among all the citizens of the state of all the wealth 

 produced, less the amount retained for public and 

 common purposes. As the outcome of the contest, 

 the strength of the parties in the new Assembly 



