

THE BERRY INFLUENCE, 1875-1882 217 



two experienced Parliamentarians, who had been members of the 

 Service Ministry J. M. Grant and Thomas Bent were respectively 

 Chief Secretary and Minister of Eailways ; Dr. Dobson, a law 

 lecturer at the University, was Solicitor-General ; and the other 

 positions were filled by neophytes who had not been conspicuous in 

 the brawls of the past. 



The blazon on the banner of the new Ministry was " Peace, 

 Progress and Prosperity," and though they occupied by no means a 

 commanding position in the House, the Opposition, compounded of 

 the irreconcilable elements of both Conservatism and Berryism, were 

 unable to dislodge them, though they launched several adverse 

 motions. There were good reasons for failure. Neither party was 

 strong enough to rule alone, and the Ministry being a judicious blend 

 there was no room for further coalition. Indeed, while the Minis- 

 terial banner carried its inscription, he would have been a very reck- 

 less and fatuous politician who would have dared to haul it down. 

 For the country imperatively demanded peace, and the community 

 generally were rapidly learning that progress and prosperity were 

 unattainable without it. 



The period during which Sir Graham Berry had been so politi- 

 cally prominent was scarred with many disasters. He had entered 

 office in 1877 with a great flourish of trumpets, and with a surplus 

 in the Treasury of over 200,000. During his five years' rule he 

 imposed additional taxation which yielded over a million and a 

 quarter sterling. When he was put out he left his successor in 

 office to face a deficit of about half a million. His advent to power 

 excited great expectations, and he had been accorded the support of 

 the largest and most docile following in Parliament that any man 

 could desire. Yet, after filling the Legislature with turmoil, and 

 drilling his outside supporters to the flippant use of threats of 

 " broken heads and houses in flames," he had gone out of power 

 with nothing to his credit. His Land Tax Bill, with all its corrup- 

 tion-breeding details of administration and its generally admitted 

 unfairness of incidence, had been accepted by the Council because of 

 its unwillingness to renew a deadlock over a matter in which their 

 constituents were almost solely interested. He had secured for his 

 followers their 300 a year at the cost of gross injustice and even 



