Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/265

 Right Hon. C.C.Kingston ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 239 brilliant, a combination held office as that which Mr. Kingston at this time formed. It included three ex-Premiers — Mr. T. Playford, Mr. ¥. W. Holder, and Dr. J. A. Cockburn — as well as two of the rising men of the day, the Hon. J. H. Gordon and the late Hon. P. P. Gillen. This Ministry was referred to as the " Cabinet of all the talents " ; and as it was in some respects a coalition of two parties, which, while of somewhat similar politics, had hitherto been opposed to one another, it was accounted sure of a long life. The expectation was more than fulfilled. The Kingston Government held office longer than any previous Ministry in South Australia. The end did not come until December, 1899; and it is not too much to say that although he then personally ceased to be a Minister and a member of Parliament, the spirit of Mr. Kingston animated the Ministry formed by his able and trusted lieutenant, Mr. Holder, a week later. Holding office for over six years, and firmly established in the confidence of the people of South Australia, the Kingston-Holder administration was enabled to give full effect to its abounding legislative energy. This energy manifested itself entirely in Democratic directions, resulting in legislation of the highest importance and most far-reaching effect. Whatever position Mr. Kingston may come to take in the higher sphere of Federal politics, it will never be forgotten in his own Province of South Australia that he was the first to get the somewhat inclined-to-be-restless Democratic team to go in harness together. He attached them to the political coach and drove them straight ahead. While possessed, however, of no uncertain leaning to Democratic views, Mr. Kingston also proved himself a man of judgment and sense, who was not likely to go too fast ; and this although he has made remarkable changes in South Australian legislation, which will undoubtedly largely influence the future of the most Democratic Province of the group of sister States on the Australian Continent. Prominent in the long list of legislation standing to the credit of the Kingston-Holder Government are measures providing for the extension of the franchise to women, the establishment of a State Bank, the regulation of factories ; industrial conciliation ; a progressive system of land and income taxation ; State-aid to producers ; liberalisation of mineral, pastoral, and agricultural laws, and progressive land, income, and succession duties. Owing to this outcrop of Democratic legislation, South Australia may now be said to possess a code of progressive laws which attracts widespread attention, and the effects of which are being keenly watched in various parts of the world. Mr. Kingston is a determined leader and indefatigable worker — phases of his character that explain much of his success. In intercolonial matters Mr. Kingston has ever been an active figure. About twelve years ago, at an Intercolonial Conference, he drafted the Bill relating to the restriction of Chinese immigration ; while he has ever declared himself staunchly inimical to colored immigration, and determined to fight tooth-and-nail to keep Australia for the white man. At the F"ederal Council held in Hobart in 1889 he carried resolutions providing for the extension of that institution. He was a South Australian representative at the National Australian Convention held in Sydney in 1891 to frame a Federal Constitution ; on which his abilities as a draughtsman led to his appointment as one of three to assist Sir Samuel Griffith in drawing up the first Australian Commonwealth Bill. Mr. Kingston is an anient P'ederationist, and throughout the subsequent agitations, conferences, and conventions, has ably represented his Province. With Sir George 'J'urner, the Victorian Premier, he drafted