" PEACE, PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY " 241 



expectant Ministers the selection of three each by Messrs. Service 

 and Berry necessarily left some soreness and discontent. But the 

 ill-feeling had to be faced, and presumptuous self-seeking to be 

 properly snubbed. 



Mr. Service as Premier took charge of the Treasury and the 

 Education Department. His selected colleagues were Mr. G. B. 

 Kerferd as Attorney-General, Mr. Gillies, Commissioner of Eailways, 

 and Mr. Levien, Minister of Mines and Agriculture. Mr. Berry as 

 Chief Secretary and Postmaster-General selected Mr. G. D. Lang- 

 ridge for the Customs, Mr. A. L. Tucker for the Lands Department, 

 and Mr. Alfred Deakin as the Minister of Public Works and Water 

 Supply. To these were added Mr. K. S. Anderson as Minister of 

 Justice, and Colonel Sargood without office, as representatives of the 

 Cabinet in the Legislative Council. Six months later Mr. Anderson 

 died, and on the readjustment of offices Mr. Deakin became Solicitor- 

 General and Colonel Sargood assumed the newly created duties of 

 Minister of Defence. The press generally received the coalition 

 with favourable justification. The strongest support was based upon 

 the necessity for avoiding the possibility of reverting to the feeble 

 chaos of the last session, with its divided interests, each too weak 

 to assert itself. It was also urged that Mr. Berry's wanton excesses 

 in the past had been due to the desperation of his position. An in- 

 cessant intrigue for office when out in the cold, and, when on the 

 Treasury benches, a perpetual dread of ejectment. His admirers 

 clamoured for him to have a chance of showing what he could 

 do when relieved from the desperate struggle for existence. His 

 readiness as a debater and his power of arousing enthusiasm in 

 his followers were generally acknowledged. Neither of these 

 qualities were characteristic of Mr. Service. In debate he was 

 too anxious to be perfectly just, to make those telling dashes of 

 oratorical statement which, though perhaps easily answered, some- 

 times win by their very audacity. As a leader he never hesitated 

 to deal candidly and truthfully with his party, and the occasions 

 are indeed rare when an enthusiastic following can be evoked with- 

 out throwing some glamour over it not quite consistent with the 

 plain truth, or some flattery that is far from genuine. The pre- 

 ponderance of opinion was in favour of the alliance, and the results 

 VOL. H. 16 



