CHAPTER IX. 

 THE ERA OP EXTRAVAGANCE. 



THE retirement of Messrs. Service, Berry and Kerferd was followed 

 by the resignation of the coalition Ministry, and Mr. Gillies was 

 entrusted with the task of forming a new combination. On the 

 17th of February, 1886, he announced the names of the gentlemen 

 who had accepted office, himself and Mr. Deakin being the only 

 continuing members of the late Cabinet. Mr. Gillies, representing 

 the constitutional or conservative party, assumed the onerous 

 responsibility of Premier, Treasurer, Minister of Railways, and 

 subsequently Minister of Mines. He secured for his Law Officers 

 Mr. H. J. Wrixon as Attorney-General and Mr. Henry Cuthbert, 

 in the Upper House, as Minister of Justice. Mr. James Lorimer, 

 also in the Council, succeeded Colonel Sargood as Minister of 

 Defence. Mr. Deakin, whom the Berry party looked to as their 

 leader, became Chief Secretary and Minister of Water Supply. 

 From his following he selected Professor Pearson for Minister of 

 Education, Mr. J. L. Dow as Minister of Lands, and Mr. John 

 Nimmo as Minister of Public Works. The Cabinet was completed 

 by the inclusion of Mr. F. T. Derham as Postmaster-General and 

 Mr. W. F. Walker at the Customs. 



Five of the new Ministers, Lorimer, Walker, Derham, Nimmo 

 and Dow, were new to office. The first-named three were repre- 

 sentative mercantile men. Mr. Nimmo was a harmless trading 

 politician who had been a surveyor. Mr. Dow was a journalist, 

 with a wide experience in agricultural matters, long associated 

 under the Service regime with Mr. Deakin in practical investigation 

 into the methods of irrigation which might be applied to Victorian 

 farming. On the whole, the Cabinet commanded public confidence : 

 it was sufficiently strong in the Assembly to dishearten the Op- 



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