190 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II 
Parliament on. the assumption that the advice would not 
be acceded to. In one case the advice was not taken, in the 
other it was—to the great dismay of the Government. This 
was specially a case in which there should be some superior 
and calmer authority to determine whether a dissolution 
were necessary or not. To adopt any other rule would 
introduce grave constitutional changes and would diminish 
to a very great extent one of the powers of the Crown. On 
the other hand, Sir William Fitzherbert, one of the repre- 
sentatives of New Zealand, was strongly of opinion that 
the responsibility of ministers in this respect should be 
complete. Sir Robert Wisdom, however, on behalf of New 
South Wales, considered that the proposal was quite im- 
proper ; no inconvenience had attended the refusal of the 
Governor to accept advice except the inconvenience to the 
Ministry tendering the advice, and the public had never 
suffered so far as he knew by the refusal of the Governor to 
grant a dissolution; the opinion of Sir Ambrose Shea, on 
behalf of Newfoundland, was evidently against the idea, and 
no action was taken accordingly as the result of the discussion. 
The year 1899 saw the curious feature of three refusals 
of dissolution of Parliament by Colonial Governors in 
Australia. On September 7, 1899, Mr. Reid was defeated 
on a vote arising out of a personal matter—the payment of 
an allowance to a commissioner—and asked Lord Beauchamp 
for a dissolution, which was not accorded, doubtless because 
there was no real public issue at stake and Mr. Lyne was 
ready and able to form a Ministry to carry on Mr. Reid’s own 
plans. On November 28 Mr. Kingston was defeated in the 
South Australian House of Assembly, was refused by Lord 
Tennyson a dissolution, resigned, and was succeeded by 
Mr. Solomon, who, however, had to resign in a few days, 
when Sir F. Holder, treasurer in Mr. Kingston’s Ministry, 
took office for a couple of years. On December 1 Sir G. 
Turner was defeated in the Victoria Legislative Assembly, 
and Lord Brassey refused him a dissolution, Mr. Allan McLean 
being sent for and holding office for nearly a year.! 
+ See Quick and Garran, Constitution of Commonwealth, p. 464 ; South