326 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [part 11 
failure of his supporters to carry his measures against 
treason. Sir G. Sprigg then very skilfully conducted affairs 
until 1904, when the general election placed him in a minority, 
and the Progressives held office until forced out of it in 1908 
by the general election, which had been brought on somewhat 
prematurely by the loss of a majority in the Upper House. 
Mr. Merriman then led a party under Bond influence until the 
Union in 1910. Natal has been very unstable, but one Govern- 
ment held office in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony 
respectively from the grant of responsible government to 1910. 
The causes for these changes are no doubt the lack of 
questions on which parties could divide on party lines. 
The Labour! party is the only one in Australia which is 
organized so as to be an effective and united instrument ; 80 
too the Bond party and its followers in South Africa ; all 
other parties are very disloyal to their chiefs, and prevent 
any Ministry having the complete control of. legislation 
which a Ministry in this country usually has. 
Moreover, the small size of the Dominion Parliaments is, 
as was pointed out long ago by Lord Elgin? a source of 
great difficulty ; the absence from illness or other causes of 
a few members in a small House may utterly upset Govern- 
ment policy, and there can be no question that it renders 
effective legislation more difficult. 
One remedy which has been suggested, and to a certain 
extent insisted upon in recent years, is to have elective 
ministries, in the hope that in this way, with fewer changes in 
the Ministry, administration at least can be effectively carried 
on. The subject has been discussed a good many times? and 
was examined in New Zealand in 1891 by a committee, which 
* Labour predominates in the Commonwealth, in South Australia, and 
since 1910 in New South Wales. It is also growing in strength in Victoria, 
and in Western Australia all but equals the Government ; in Tasmania it 
is not likely soon to hold office, and in Queensland the personality of 
Mr. Kidston holds it in, but his retirement in 1911 may alter matters, 
' Walrond, Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin, pp. 39, 40. 
See especially Western Australia Parliamentary Debates, xxvii. 535 
seq.; Victoria Parliamentary Debates, 1910, pp. 1804 seq. ; Commonwealth 
Parliamentary Debates, 1910, pp. 3624 seq.