cHAP. viI] CABINET SYSTEM IN DOMINIONS 331
defeated body is hardly ever desirable : it may also create
very complicated relations between the Governor and his
ministers if he is asked to do anything at all unusual by the
Government which has lost its hold on the people, as was
seen in Sir C. Tupper’s case, and the cases of Ontario in
1905 and New Brunswick in 1908. On the other ‘hand,
ministers must claim the right to meet Parliament if they
think that it is in the public interest to do so, and, if
they confine themselves to measures of ordinary administra-
tion in that period the Governor is certainly not compelled
to take steps to secure other advisers. But it is certain he
could not consent to delay the opening of Parliament longer
than was usual or proper, and if the majority against the
Government were a great one he would probably be justified
in trying to secure that there should be an early meeting
of Parliament, or that ministers should resign:! in the
South Australian case the majority for the Opposition was
very small, two votes at best, and it was hoped or thought
that by forcing the Opposition to place one of its members
in the chair the result might be brought about that it would
have either no majority or a majority of one, while in the
Upper House nearly all the members were members of the
governmental party.
Ministries, of course, also resign when they cannot find
adequate support in the Lower House, and either do not
ask for, or if they ask for, do not receive a dissolution.?
As in England, as a normal rule, the Lower House alone
determines the Government of the day, and the Upper House
has no voice in its selection. This is obviously the case
with all the Legislatures which have nominee Upper Houses,
and it is no less so with those which have elective Upper
‘ Cf. New Zealand Parl. Pap., 1879, A. 1 and 2.
* So in 1905 Mr. Daglish resigned in Western Australia without even
asking for a dissolution (Parliamentary Debates, xxvii. 803), as the party
would not work harmoniously ; in three of the cases of the Commonwealth
changes a dissolution has been asked for but refused. Sir J. Macdonald in
1873 resigned before an adverse vote, which was certain, could actually
be passed (Pope, ii. 184 seq.).
