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 The old leader sorrowfully accepted the position. He himself put to the caucus the motion that deposed him; and he received at his own hands his dismissal from the party which he had created and which he had led to a glorious victory.

“I am now indeed an outcast among men,” he said, as he left his seat in the front benches.

The days that followed were anxious ones for both parties. They played with the items of the Liberal policy, quarrelled for possession of them, and, in their bitterness towards each other, nearly tore the measures to tatters.

Before his deposition from the ministerial benches, Sir George had prepared an elaborate Electoral Bill. It had been framed and revised, and set up in type in the Government Printing Office, but had not been printed. As soon as Sir John Hall took office he ordered a rough proof of this Bill to be brought to him. Attached to the proof there were some printed slips containing conflicting proposals, in regard to which the old Government had not been able to make up its mind. Sir John had determined that he would introduce this Electoral Bill, but, after consideration, he discarded the proof of his opponents’ measure, and went back to the Bill which was passed by the House of Representatives in a previous session, and was withdrawn while going through the Legislative Council. This he took in hand, but altered to suit his views.

The first policy measure he introduced, however, was the Triennial Parliaments Bill. It was Sir George Grey’s identical proposal. When the old man saw it placed on the table his imprisoned temper broke loose. He rose and in angry and haughty tones demanded to know by whose authority his measure had been brought up without his permission. His excited spleen, however, soon died down, and he bowed to the adverse circumstances that were bearing upon him.

Sir John Hall kept two portfolios open. These were dangled before prominent Liberals, and the air was thick with intrigues to induce members to desert their parties. Some of them stampeded from side to side of the House, as the session rolled and jolted uneasily along. Tamoana, a Maori member, was induced by promises to take Cabinet rank, but