DAYS OF TRIAL 315 



and, what was perhaps even more alarming to the shareholders, 

 with uncalled capital of 7,000,000. The pastoral interest had 

 suffered much from bad seasons, and still more by a persistent fall 

 in the value of wool, which by 1893 had dropped to a price at which 

 it could only be profitably grown in exceptionally favoured localities. 

 It was notorious, however, that this year of acute disaster to Australia 

 was notable for the severe fall which occurred in the value of ordinary 

 commercial products throughout the whole world ; a fall from 

 which recovery has been very tedious, and in many cases is still 

 incomplete. 



When a year later the reconstructed banks had got into working 

 order they had to face a multitude of difficulties. The losses which 

 the public had sustained enormously diminished their spending 

 power, and trade generally languished. With this severely curtailed 

 business, and the impossibility of realising unproductive securities, 

 some of the banks found that they had undertaken more in the way 

 of interest than they could perform. During 1895-96 there were 

 several revisions of the original schemes, and the Courts were kept 

 busy in deciding delicate questions of contract, in which equity had 

 occasionally to defer to expediency. On the whole, probably the 

 best was done for all concerned, and by the exercise of a Spartan 

 economy the lean years which followed the crisis were lived through 

 in hope, and with a wholesome avoidance of any new schemes for 

 capturing Fortune. 



The financial aspect of these years of Victoria's trials has perhaps 

 secured undue space for its consideration, but it was such a marked 

 factor in the last decade of the century, and so coloured the political 

 and social movements of the period, that it could not be lightly dealt 

 with. 



The Ministry of which Mr. Shiels was Premier held office in 

 1892, and the budget statement of his Treasurer, Sir Graham Berry, 

 revealed how the Customs revenue was diminishing under reduced 

 imports, partly due to borrowing having been stopped and partly to 

 the operation of prohibitive duties. The Treasurer had to admit an 

 accumulated deficit of 1,500,000, with at least another 500,000 at 

 the debit of the " Land Sales by Auction Fund," representing ex- 

 penditure incurred in anticipation of the sale of specific lands set 



