192 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [parT II 
which were due in 1910, the Labour party withdrew formally 
its support from the Government, in order that it should be 
able to go before the country as a united party and fight 
the Government seats. This resulted in the retirement of 
Mr. Deakin, who, however, made no attack on the Labour 
Government until they declined, in the early part of 1909, 
to consent to the presentation of a Dreadnought to the 
Imperial Government at a time when feeling ran high in 
Australia, and when New Zealand had led the way by a muni- 
ficent offer of support. Then they were turned out by a 
coalition between the supporters of Mr. Deakin and Mr. Cook, 
Mr. Reid having retired to make room for the possibility of 
fusion, which could not have been accomplished as long as he 
was in active political life. The Governor-General refused Mr, 
Fisher a dissolution, and Mr. Deakin took office.! The party, 
however, was completely defeated at the general elections and 
retired and a Labour Government took its place in April 1910. 
In the States of the Commonwealth there have recently 
been strong examples of the difficulties of a Governors 
position. In South Australia, Mr. Price, the Premier, applied 
to the Governor in 1906 for a dissolution on the ground that 
he was anxious to take the steps necessary under the Consti- 
tution Act of 1901 to secure a penal dissolution of the Lower 
House with a view to coercing the Upper House, with which 
he was engaged in a bitter controversy over the right of 
franchise. The Governor was unwilling to dissolve a Parlia- 
ment which had not long been in existence, and in which the 
Premier had only a small majority in the Lower House 
and was in a hopeless minority in the Upper House. He 
therefore declined to grant a dissolution except as a last 
resort, and tried to find if any member of the Lower House 
could form a Government. He soon found that this was 
impossible, and he therefore recalled Mr. Price and undertook 
bo give him the dissolution for which he asked, and matters 
were settled with the Upper House in the direction of a con- 
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 1909, p. 227. This is a case of 
special interest as it is very possible that a dissolution would have meant 
the return of the Government; cf. Turner, op. cit., p. 221.