320 



The Review of Reviews. 



Octeter 1, 190S. 



about, but nobody wants to initiate it just now. 

 The attitude taken up by many of the members 

 almost suggested the idea that they feared that, 

 under a method of majority voting, thev would be 

 defeated. Everybody must acknowledge that 

 Queensland has done very well under her Effective 

 Voting arrangements, and it is an amusing libel upon 

 the intelligence of electors to imagine that they could 

 not express in order their preferences for half-a- 

 dozen candidates or more. Whilst our present sys- 

 tem is maintained, minority representation is cer- 

 tain to obtain in a great many instances in the ne.xt 

 Federal Parliament, and it will be as little represen- 

 tative of the people as is this one. If Mr. Deakin re- 

 mains in power when the elections are over, this ought 

 to be amongst one of the first measures to be intro- 

 duced by him. The same excuse for rejecting it 

 cannot then be advanced, and there ought to be 

 every possibility of it going through, for members 

 will not have the excuse which they obtruded over the 

 lost Bill, that it was not a good thing to make a 

 change on the eve of a general election." 



yt It is becoming more and more evi- 



IVew Zealand <i^nt that Sir Joseph Ward did not 

 Cabinet, only a wise, but a very plucky thing 



in reconstructing the Cabinet when 

 he took charge. It is always a delicate question, 

 fraught with a thousand dangers to the operator, for 

 discontented men are always likely to be men with 

 grievances. From a politician's point of view, there 

 is more safety in leaving things as they are, for the 

 weak men are placated, while aspirants to office 

 have dim visions of reconstruction kept before their 

 vision. But Sir Joseph Ward has made a good 

 start, and shown a determination to grasp the helm 

 in a masterful fashion, and to form a Cabinet in the 

 interests of the community. The wisdom of his 

 selection becomes more apparent as time to look at 

 it in all its bearings is gained. The men represent 

 sections in the House. Another very wise thing in 

 connection with it is that the men whom he has 

 taken in are strong men. It was a failing of Mr. 

 Seddon's to surround himself as far as was possible 

 with weak tools, and the House was beginning to 

 feel restive under a one-man Ministry. Sir Joseph 

 Ward will be first among equals, and in this will 

 make his position infinitely stronger than would have 

 been the case had he kept the personnel of the late 

 Cabinet intact. 



An instance of the very opposite to 

 Mr. Bent's this has been manifest in Victoria 

 Blunder, of late. It has been a standing 



reproach to the Bent Government 

 that Sir Samuel Gillott, one of the largest individual 

 owners of public-house property in Melbourne, ad- 

 ministers the Chief Secretary's Department, which 

 has to do with the police force, and therefore has 



the o\ersight of the licensing laws. Everybody but 

 Mr. Bent sees the folly of such a thing, and re- 

 cognises that it is not a fair thing to the country 

 that a man should administer a department in the 

 administration of which his own private property is 

 concerned. The whole country has, more parti- 

 cularly during the last four months, risen in arms 

 against it, but Mr. Bent has refused to make any 

 change, although the administration of the depart- 

 ment is so fearfully lax that he has abundant cause 

 to do it. Last month his opportunity came. Mr. 

 Murray, Minister of Lands, chagrined at the evident 

 desire of Mr. Bent to take the Closer Settlement 

 Bill out of his hands, and of Mr. Bent's willingness 

 to accept amendments upon the Compulsory Pur- 

 chase Clause (which Mr. Murray regarded as es- 

 sential to the Bill), threw up the Bill during the 

 debate upon it. and at the same time tendered his 

 resignation as a Minister of the Cabinet. Here was 

 Mr. Bent's chance, a golden opportunity put into 

 his hands. He might have reconstructed the Minis- 

 try without the loss of an atom of dignity, putting 

 Sir Samuel Gillott into some department where his 

 inactivity could have done infinitely less harm, and 

 where his personal interests were not involved. If 

 he had done this, he would have taken out of the 

 hands of reformers a w'hip with which they had 

 scourged him and Sir Samuel Gillott, but he re- 

 fused to use his opportunity. The retention of Sir 

 Samuel Gillott in his present position, especially 

 after the chance which has been given him, is an 

 insult to the community. Xow Mr. Bent will only 

 have himself to blame if, formerly " chastised with 

 -.whips," he is now "chastised with scorpions." 



Whatever may be the opinions re- 

 f^ Principle garding Mr. Murray giving up his 



^Before Position, portfolio in consequence of a dis- 

 agreement with the Premier, there 

 can be no two opinions as to the rightness of his 

 action from one point of view. Mr. Murray believed 

 that Compulsory Purchase was an absolutely neces- 

 sary feature of the Closer Settlement Bill. Mr. Bent 

 was willing that the clause making provision for this 

 should be dropped out. Mr. Murray therefore re- 

 signed. Now it is within reason to imagine that 

 Mr. Murray might have allowed the Bill to go 

 through, being content to get as much as he ..ould 

 and leave the future to give him more, but the point 

 is that he refused to compromise, and, on a matter 

 of principle, went out of oflSce. On this he is to 

 be commended. There are so many lovers of office 

 that they will hang on to it even though every prin 

 ciple of right be sacrificed. The present Victorian i 

 Government contains at least one glaring instance of ' 

 this. Men are not to be found every day willing to j 

 sacrifice a thousand pounds a year for principle, and 

 the incident deserves to be put on record because of 

 its illustration of a principle for which we are al- 

 wavs contending — principle before everything else. 



