CHAP. IV] THE GOVERNOR AS HEAD 199 
customs of his predecessors. The inquiry, however, clearly 
showed that the Governor had in no wise been to blame ; 
he asked the minister as to supply and he received a satis- 
factory assurance, which was not, it seems, warranted by 
facts. He could not properly have taken any steps further 
to safeguard himself, and the precedent of the action of 
Sir Hercules Robinson in 1877, which was quoted as showing 
the extent of his duty, was fully carried out by him. The 
result of the election, which was claimed in some quarters 
as showing that he had acted wrongly in granting a dissolu- 
tion, was no evidence, as the essential ground of his action 
was that there was no prospect of a strong Government with- 
out a dissolution, while after the dissolution he was enabled 
to secure a Ministry which has retained office until 1911, a 
considerable feat in view of the varied and contesting parties 
in the state and the absence of any great dividing lines. 
In 1907 a very curious incident occurred in Western 
Australia. The Upper House rejected by two votes a Land 
Tax Bill, and ministers then asked the Governor for a disso- 
lution. His action is shown by his speech on closing the 
third session of the sixth Parliament, on September 19, 1907 : 
I have to thank you for the earnest attention which you 
have given to your public duties, and regret that the labours 
of the Session have been brought to an abrupt and unexpected 
termination. 
In view of the rejection by the Legislative Council of a Bill 
providing for the imposition of Taxation on the Unimproved 
Value of Land, my Advisers deemed it to be their duty to 
tender their resignation. Seeing, however, that the Govern- 
ment retains the full confidence of the Legislative Assembly, 
I did not feel justified in accepting the resignation, or in 
complying, under present circumstances. with a further re- 
quest made for a Dissolution. 
I am confident in the hope that the proposals which will 
be presented to you on reassembling will secure that favour- 
able consideration which any Financial Measure, endorsed 
emphatically by that branch of the Legislature in which all 
Financial Measures must be initiated, demands, and which 
my Advisers consider to be of vital importance to the financial 
stability and development of the State. 
Under these circumstances I desire to relieve you for a short