44 



AUSTRALASIA. 



1892 were as follow : Premier and Colonial Treas- 

 urer, William Shiels: Chief Secretary. President 

 of the Board of Land and Public Works, and 

 Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey, Al- 

 lan McLean ; Minister of Mines and of Educa- 

 tion, A. R. Outtrim ; Minister of Instruction, 

 Lieut.-Col. Sir F. T. Sargood ; Minister of Cus- 

 toms and Justice. George Turner; Minister of 

 Railroads, James Wheeler; Minister of Defense 

 and Representative of the Legislative Council, 

 George Davis ; Attorney-General and Postmas- 

 ter-General, J. Gavan Duffy ; Minister of Agri- 

 culture and Water Supply, George Graham ; 

 Commissioner of Public Works, A. Peacock ; 

 ministers without office, Simon Eraser, C. J. Ham, 

 and A. J. Peacock. 



The financial condition of Victoria is as bad 

 as that of any of the colonies. The railroads are 

 run at a loss, and 1 per cent, of the interest 

 money has to be paid out of the other revenues. 

 The exhibition at Melbourne cost the Govern- 

 ment a large amount. In 1889-'90 and 1890-'91 

 occurred deficits of 1,000,000, and 1891-'92 

 closed with a deficiency of 1,500,000. The ex- 

 travagances that had brought about this condi- 

 tion gave place to economical shifts of a humili- 

 ating kind, in spite of which Sir Graham Berry 

 looked forward to a deficit of 1,000,000 at the 

 end of 1892-'93. The salaries of officials and the 

 school appropriations were cut down, the inland 

 postage was doubled, and the customs duties on 

 a large number of articles were raised 10 or 15 

 per cent. A financial panic which began in Mel- 

 bourne in December, 1891, being caused by the 

 failure of some of the numerous building socie- 

 ties and the suspension of 2 or 3 banks that 

 were involved, was stopped by a bill that was 

 hurried through the Legislature which provides 

 that no bank or other corporation or individual 

 fa.n be forced into liquidation except on the de- 

 mand of one third of the creditors. 



In the general election which took place on 

 April 20, 1892, the Labor party failed to gain 

 the position which would enable them, as in 

 New South Wales, to hold the balance of power. 

 Out of 36 candidates only a dozen were elected, 

 and of these not more than half were thorough- 

 going working-class representatives. The prin- 

 ciple of one man one vote, on account of which 

 Mr. Monro resigned the premiership in the be- 

 ginning of the year, taking the post of Agent- 

 General in England, while his colleague, Mr. 

 Shiels, succeeded him as Premier, seemed also to 

 have lost its force. A bill to establish this prin- 

 ciple was passed by the lower house, but was 

 nullified by an amendment of the Legislative 

 Council which preserved the dual vote. Mr. 

 Monro resigned, and the Cabinet was recon- 

 structed with the chief advocate of the measure 

 at its, head. The bill was made the principal 

 platform of the Government party, but, as the 

 result of the election, its supporters in the As- 

 sembly declined, and the majority of 9 members 

 in favor of the principle in the new House were 

 insufficient to overcome the opposition of the 

 Legislative Council. Other measures advocated 

 by the ministry, which was again reconstructed 

 in consequence of the result of the election, were 

 an increase, of the stock tax a protectionist 

 measure demanded by the agricultural interest 

 for the exclusion of the competition of other 



colonies. The new Assembly was composed of 

 46 Ministerialists, 25 Conservatives, 12 Independ- 

 ents or Radicals of the old type, and 12 Labor 

 members. The old Radicals were divided into 

 two antagonistic factions, one being in favor of 

 giving public money for Catholic schools and the 

 other acting with the Conservatives in opposi- 

 tion to denominational education. The finan- 

 cial crisis made it impossible for the ministry 

 which had come into power as advocates of the 

 interests of labor to continue to provide employ- 

 ment for workingmen at the expense of the Gov- 

 ernment. A measure for the relief of the un- 

 employed was the village settlements bill, intro- 

 duced by the Government in July, the object of 

 which was to settle poor families who were un- 

 able to obtain a living in Melbourne on good 

 agricultural land in the rural districts. Owing 

 to the enormous patronage of the Government, 

 which not only manages all the railroads but 

 various other works that are left to private en- 

 terprise in most countries, and to the consequent 

 high wages paid by Government and individual 

 employers who must compete with the Govern- 

 ment, the population of Melbourne and its sub- 

 urbs is three times as great, in proportion to the 

 total population of the country, as that of Lon- 

 don, constituting two fifths of the population of 

 the colony, while another fifth live in the other 

 large towns. This congestion of the cities, and 

 especially of the capital, is the cause of much 

 chronic misery and idleness, which is aggravated 

 in times of stagnation like the present period. 



Queensland. The Legislative . Assembly is 

 composed of 72 members, who have hitherto been 

 elected for five years, but for the future the term 

 has been reduce'd to three years. The members 

 of the Legislative Council are appointed by the 

 Crown for life, and consequently the influence of 

 that body on the policy of the Government is less 

 than in colonies where it is elective. The Gov- 

 ernor is Gen. Sir Henry Wylie Norman, who re- 

 ceived his appointment in December, 1888. The 

 Executive Council in 1892 was composed of the 

 following members : Premier, Chief Secretary, 

 Attorney-General, and Vice-President of the 

 Council, Sir Samuel W. Griffith ; Minister for 

 Lands and Agriculture, S. Cowley ; Minister of 

 Railway and Postmaster-General, T. Unmack ; 

 Minister of Public Instruction and Minister for 

 Mines, W. 0. Hodgkinson ; Colonial Secretary 

 and Secretary for Public Works, H. Tozer ; So- 

 licitor-General, T. J. Byrnes; Colonial Treasurer, 

 Sir Thomas Mcllwraith ; Minister without port- 

 folio, W. H. Wilson. 



The bill introduced into the colonial Parlia- 

 ment in 1891 by representatives of Northern 

 and Central Queensland was defeated by their 

 southern colleagues. The separation leagues of 

 the two northern districts continued to push the 

 matter, and in 1892 sent delegations to England 

 to urge compulsory separation upon Lord Knuts- 

 ford, Secretary of State for the Colonies, who ex- 

 pressed approval of the ultimate division of the 

 colony. Sir Samuel Griffith, who had carried 

 through the bill to revive the traffic in Polyne- 

 sian laborers to please the Northern Queensland- 

 ers, framed a separation bill himself and intro- 

 duced it into Parliament in order to forestall the 

 plan of erecting the northern sections into inde- 

 pendent colonies, like Queensland itself when it 



