322 A HISTOKY OF THE COLONY OF VICTOEIA 



October, 1894, Sir Graham Berry was elected Speaker, a judicious 

 step which greatly conduced to political peace. There were really 

 no clearly denned party issues, and although a strong Opposition is 

 necessary to keep a flagging Ministry up to the collar, there seemed 

 to be no special call for their services just then. Indeed, with Sir 

 Graham provided for, there was no one on those benches who desired 

 the responsibilities of power, until the Treasurer had put the finances 

 straight. And in a very short time opinion solidified throughout the 

 country that Sir George Turner was the man to do it. Even his 

 opponents in the press, while deriding his political views and his 

 apparent submission to the demands of the labour corner, were com- 

 pelled to admit that he had banished from the Treasury the Micaw- 

 ber-like attitude of some of his predecessors. It was not a pleasant 

 office, and it was not work to boast about, as Sir James Patterson 

 had done. Without any assistance from an improving revenue, but 

 simply by keeping a strict control of the expenditure and turning a 

 deaf ear to deputations, he gained his point within three years. 

 The national balance-sheet on the 30th of June, 1897, showed that 

 the revenue for the year then closed had exceeded the expenditure 

 by 61,000. This was the first arrest of the huge deficiencies of 

 the preceding six years, which had by this time accumulated to a 

 total of 2,711,000. From that day forward the expenditure again 

 commenced to rise, but any increase was more than balanced by 

 a growing revenue. This in turn was largely due to improved 

 railway earnings, and general activity in business operations in- 

 fluencing the Customs and stamp duties. In each year to the 

 date of his retirement the Treasurer managed to show a substan- 

 tial balance to the good, but he had introduced an income tax in 

 1894, and it is curious to note that in the last three years of 

 the century that impost just provided the amount of his declared 

 surpluses. 



The principal legislation of Sir George Turner's Ministry is too 

 recent to be judged by results. A very important revisal of The 

 Companies Act, in the light of the base uses to which it had lately 

 been perverted, was passed in 1896, after long and earnest con- 

 sideration by a Select Committee. There were many variations, 

 additions and amendments of The Factories Acts, but all of a ten- 



