SURVEY OF THE EAELY SEVENTIES 175 



to 370,000. To fill the void there was to be a land tax, house tax, 

 bank-note tax and stamp tax. These, with a substantial increase 

 in the duties on spirits, beer and tobacco, were estimated to convert 

 the existing deficit into a surplus of 150,000 at the close of the 

 financial year. 



The budget was received more favourably by the public and 

 the press than it was in the Assembly. Sir James McCulloch led 

 off with a declaration that the estimated expenditure was outrageous, 

 and declared that the ledger should be balanced by retrenchment, 

 not by further taxation. The brewers and publicans were loud in 

 their protests, and they combined with the extreme Protectionists 

 to block progress. Mr. Berry thereupon, mistaking the strength 

 of his party, moved the direct rejection of the financial proposals 

 of the Government, and hurried it to a division. Although he had 

 the support of Sir James McCulloch the motion was defeated by 

 thirty-two to twenty-two, most of the dissatisfied members of the 

 Free Trade party, upon whose support Berry had relied, walking out 

 of the Chamber when the division bell rang. 



In the presence of faction and intrigue this substantial endorse- 

 ment of the Ministerial policy counted for little. The debate 

 which took place on the first item, the increased spirit duties, dis- 

 closed the fact that the Free Trade party could not be relied on 

 to rally round their champion. Personal pique, disguised under 

 assumed objections to some item of new taxation, operated with 

 a few. The blandishments of an expectant Cabinet-maker caught 

 others, and the party now presented with its first chance of reason- 

 able reform failed to grasp it. When the division on the test vote 

 was taken, men like Sir James McCulloch and Mr. Langton were 

 found ranged behind Mr. Berry, and the majority for the Govern- 

 ment was reduced to one. This vote seemed to render the position 

 unworkable, but as the country had apparently pronounced in 

 favour of the Government proposal, Mr. Kerferd thought he was 

 entitled to a dissolution. The acting Governor, Sir Wm. Stawell, 

 did not concur in that view, and when an appeal to the country 

 was refused the Ministry resigned. There was a widespread 

 opinion that the resignation was precipitate. No actual defeat had 

 been sustained, and there was abundant English and Colonial 



