A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



Sir George Ferguson Bowen succeeded Viscount Canterbury, and took office on the 

 3ist of March, 1873. He, too, soon found himself embroiled in political troubles. The 

 old feud between the two Houses of Parliament had slumbered, but had not ceased. 

 They had differed on the subject of payment of Members. On two occasions the Upper 



House had acquiesced in a measure of 

 this kind to be operative for three 

 years, but in 1877, at the beginning of 

 the third session of the Parliament, a 

 new Ministry, at the head of which 

 was Mr. Berry, backed by a powerful 

 majority, announced that it did not in- 

 tend to introduce a specific measure 

 for the renewal of this payment, but 

 would tack the item to the Appro- 

 priation Bill. It did so, and the Council 

 set the Bill aside. Thus there were 

 no funds available for the payment of 

 public servants, and on the 8th of 

 January, 1878, which was thenceforward 

 known as " Black Wednesday," a notice 

 appeared in the Government Gazette 

 dismissing the Heads of Departments, 

 together with the Judges of County 

 Courts, Courts of Mines, Courts of 

 Insolvency, Police Magistrates, Crown 

 Prosecutors, and a number of other 

 functionaries. The proceeding was ad- 

 mitted to be a "revolutionary" one, and its effect on the community, by impairing confi- 

 dence and inspiring alarm, was disastrous. Property depreciated in value, business underwent 

 a sudden contraction, there was a considerable exodus of capital and labour to a neigh- 

 bouring colony, and party "feeling was greatly exacerbated by the extreme measures 

 resorted to by the Government. On the 28th of May the Council passed a separate 

 Bill for the. payment of Members, and also an Appropriation Bill with the tack omitted. 

 In the Assembly soon afterwards a measure was introduced which virtually deprived the 

 Upper House of most of its power as a co-ordinate branch of the Legislature, and intro- 

 duced the principle of the plebiscite. It was thrown out by the Council, and the Lower 

 House voted five thousand pounds sterling to enable Mr. Berry and a colleague to proceed 

 to England for the purpose of conferring with the Secretary of State for the Colonies on 

 the subject of the constitutional difficulties of the colony. On the 4th of December Sir 

 George Bowen received a despatch announcing his recall, and informing him that the 

 Marquis of Normanby had been appointed as his successor. His Lordship assumed office 

 on the 27th of February, 1879. I" the meantime Messrs. Berry and Pearson had 

 proceeded to England to invoke Imperial interference in the political troubles of the 

 colony. But Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who was at that time at the head of the 



GOVERNOR SIR CHARLES H. DARLING. 



