198 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART It
to find other advisers better able than they to conduct His
Majesty’s Government, or unless I felt that their advice
was contrary to the feelings of the country. I did not
believe that I could at that moment find such advisers, and
[ felt that if I refused to accept the advice of the Premier
[ should be doing so without reasonable certainty of my
action being supported by the constituencies.
L therefore agreed to dissolve Parliament.
The Premier concurred with me in thinking that the new
Parliament ought to meet with as little delay as possible.
He assured me that, provided the elections took place before
the end of the year, sufficient money was legally available
;0 discharge the liabilities of the State without any further
grant of supply.
I therefore dissolved Parliament at once to permit of its
re-assembling on the earliest day which the Premier thought
at all convenient.
The action of the Governor was not popular, because the
members of Parliament did not like being sent back to their
constituencies so soon after the last election, and the season
of the year was not well suited for electioneering.! But
a more serious matter came to light: the Auditor called
attention in a report of December 30, 1908, to the fact that
large sums were being expended not merely without parlia-
mentary authority, but also without a warrant from the
Governor. It appeared that the Treasurer, who was also
Premier, gave instructions for the expenditure without
regard to the legal difficulties of the position, because it was
necessary to keep the state solvent. The matter was taken
up on the assembling of Parliament, when the ministers at
once resigned as they were clearly in a minority, and the
matter was entrusted to a commission for inquiry. But the
commission mainly elicited the fact that financial irregu-
larities on a large scale were usual, not that the ex-Premier
had acted in any very improper way, bearing in mind the
! For criticisms of the Governor’s action, see Age, December 7, 1908,
January 19, 20, February 24, 1909; contra, Argus, December 26, 1908,
February 24, 1909 ; and cf. Sydney Bulletin, December 17 and 24, 1908 ;
Adelaide Chronicle, December 12, 1908, January 9, 1909.
' Sce Parliamentary Debates, 1909, pp. 9 scq., 330-3.
