crap. vir] CABINET SYSTEM IN DOMINIONS 327

issued a long report, but so far nothing has resulted from
the discussions, though several prominent statesmen have
pronounced themselves as being definitely opposed to it.
Tt is difficult to see how elective ministries can be harmonized
with effective parliamentary government, and it is very
doubtful whether after experience of full parliamentary
government any dominion or state would care to confine
itself to a position in which the Ministry of the day was
independent of votes in Parliament, and could not be displaced
 for a fixed period! Moreover, it would complicate,
though this is not a very important matter, the relations of
the Crown with the Dominion Governments and Parliaments.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that constant
changes of Ministry, such as happen in the Commonwealth,
are opposed to all efficient administration; the remedy
appears to lie not in making ministries elective, but in
refraining from changes in the administration except on
substantial grounds, and when changes are made, in appointing
 new members to the vacated posts rather than in
transferring existing members to them, thereby upsetting
the whole scheme of the Government.
One result of the small size of parties is that the rule,
perhaps too strictly observed in the Imperial Parliament,
that a Government will go out if defeated on any measure
of any importance at all in the Lower House has not been

* The Sydney Bulletin advocates it, and it is more or less of a plank in
the Labour party’s programme; cf. Walker, Australasian Democracy,
pp. 26, 277; Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand,
i. 64 seq. The Labour party has itself, as has been noted, adopted the
caucus system of deciding on ministers and policy, a practice somewhat
vehemently resented by their opponents, but one which it is difficult to
avoid and which secures effective legislation. Then should be noted here
the extraordinary influence in Victoria of the late Mr. David Syme,
proprietor of the Age, who was admittedly consulted, and in many cases
obeyed, by practically every Victorian Ministry, as is proved beyond doubt
by his Life. Elective Federal ministers were deemed necessary, because of
the curious character of the Upper House in Australia, by Sir 8. Griffith,
Sir R. Baker, and others ; see Quick and Garran, Constitution of Commonwealth,
 pp. 708, 709.