for their services, and this payment of members is universal throughout the colonies, except, as has been said, in Western Australia. The absence of a leisured class has made the practice almost a necessity. Yet it is worthy of remark that the "amateur," or unpaid, politicians of Western Australia are almost a by-word, at the moment, amongst their fellows, for what is held to be their excessive astuteness and tenacity in safeguarding the interests of their own colony. The amount of the payment varies in the different colonies; and it will, we may hope, be readjusted, or abolished, after Federation. Members of the Federal Parliament will be paid £400.
The Right Honourable Sir George Turner, who is Premier, has held office for over four years. It is a matter worthy of note that existing Ministries in all the colonies have been in possession of power for an unusually long time; almost all for over four years, some for over five. The average duration of Ministries in the past has been much shorter than this. In South Australia it was about ten months only; in Victoria about eighteen months. Whilst I was in Melbourne a Ministerial crisis arose, chiefly because the Premier lost his temper; but within twenty-four hours all was arranged, and peace reigned supreme once more. These longer-lived Ministries have been coincident with the period of depression, except in the case of Western Australia, where Sir John Forrest's extraordinary tenure of power, which he has held ever since the colony obtained self-government, is perhaps chiefly due to the fact that no one has come forward to replace him. Elsewhere, political differences have been for the time laid aside, in order that Ministries which have instituted a steady course of retrenchment should have a fair opportunity to carry out their reforms. A policy of retrenchment is, however, one of which democracies soon
