Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/232

 law, on this national property, we should inevitably have it disposed of by and by in corrupt jobs for party or personal purposes.

The motion was defeated by a narrow majority, but among the minority there were nearly half the original members of the Government who had by this time deserted it for its malpractices. My defence of legal methods in public affairs had naturally the approval of the Conservative Press, and it was somewhat of a deduction from my satisfaction to find myself on the same side with a journal which had recently represented Mr. Ebden and Mr. O'Shanassy as ideal Ministers to settle the Land question. "Denounced by Mr. Duffy," said the Argus, "in a speech of singular force and ability, its liberality must henceforth be a matter of very partial opinion. &hellip; This small defect (that they are absolutely unlawful and unconstitutional) in their otherwise perfect character could not have been brought forward with better spirit and stronger logic than were used by Mr. Duffy. Their case was the harder in that the present defender of the Law and Constitution is himself a land reformer of the most liberal class not long ago the chief of all the land reformers, and certainly a more consistent and strenuous advocate for the rights of the people than ever was Mr. Brooke or Mr. Heales."

In the end the Occupation Licenses were declared illegal by the Supreme Court, and all the labour and cost expended on them by the people would have been forfeited but that in a Land Act which I carried in a subsequent session I enabled the Board of Land and Works to confirm them in all cases where the conditions had been complied with. The inquiry which this clause necessitated disclosed the singular fact that many of the licenses were taken out by squatters or their immediate employés, to pick, as it was said, the eyes out of their holdings.

I aimed a second stroke at the Administration which was more immediately successful. A new Minister, intoxicated with the fumes of unaccustomed power, walked into the department of one of his colleagues, and, becoming dissatisfied with the conduct of the permanent head of the department, suspended him from office, and insisted that