SURVEY OF THE EARLY SEVENTIES 157 



munity was at this time fairly prosperous, and a large proportion of 

 the small traders and artisans lived in their own houses. These 

 modest properties were the result of thrift, and to tax thrift was of 

 course shown to be equally unwise and unjust. They wanted a 

 property tax on the wealthy classes, quite oblivious of the fact that 

 the wealth was in nearly every case equally the product of thrift 

 and industry carried on over a longer period. In all probability 

 many of them were already on the high road to affluence, but in the 

 meanwhile they did not want an impost which directly affected them. 

 Mutterings of dissent from so large a body of electors made members 

 anxious not to offend, so they gradually drew away from McCulloch, 

 who had again to bow to an adverse majority, and after an occupation 

 of fourteen months to vacate the Treasury benches. 



Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy now came to the front; no longer 

 under the wing of O'Shanassy, who had been relegated to the 

 obscurity of the Legislative Council, but as Premier of the colony 

 and chooser of his own colleagues. He took Graham Berry for his 

 Treasurer, for, while he always claimed to hold Free Trade views 

 himself, he saw the futility of opposition to the growing demand 

 for Protection, and he well knew that Berry was the man to ride 

 triumphantly on the crest of the wave of any movement stirring 

 public feeling. Mr. Duffy could not persuade any men of standing 

 at the Bar to join him, and the Law Officers he had to put up with 

 were weak and obscure. As some compensation he gained strength 

 by appointing J. M. Grant as Minister of Lands, for he was not 

 only widely popular, but had enjoyed an unusually long experience 

 of the office in previous Ministries. In Francis Longmore and 

 W. M. K. Vale he had a couple of ultra-radical fighters of the 

 vehement sort. He failed to secure the services of any member of 

 the Council as a responsible Minister, and had to rely upon gratuitous 

 service there to plead his cause. This had been too often the case 

 in the past, and was undoubtedly one of the causes of the want 

 of concert between the Chambers. But Mr. Duffy was not a man 

 to be discouraged by adverse surroundings. He was a host in him- 

 self. " I undertook the administration of public affairs," he writes, 

 " with the confident determination that for once there should be 

 a Government framing large and generous projects, and against 



