The Telegraphic and Postal Department obtained an evil pre-eminence through its irregularity and untrustworthiness, and caused much inconvenience and monetary loss, owing to the delay in the delivery of letters and telegrams. Complaints were also rife against the Railway Department, as imported machinery lay for months at Fremantle, because the Government had not sufficient trucks in which to take it up the line to its place of destination. It must be remembered, however, that the public services had been organised to meet the needs of a far smaller population and were called upon to carry out work which had increased at a {169} rapidity which could not be foreseen. A certain amount of difficulty was, under these circumstances, bound to occur, as the Government would not have been justified in launching into heavy additional expenditure until they had reasonable assurance of the permanence of the goldfields and of the consequent increase of business. Hitherto the Government of Western Australia has been that of a huge land development company; constitutional questions have been in the background. But a tendency is already perceptible among recent immigrants to demand manhood suffrage, payment of members, and other items of democratic legislation to which they have been accustomed in the Eastern Provinces. This movement, however, will be checked by the conservative instincts of the native population, and by the general belief that the Ministry have guided the destinies of the province wisely during the crucial years which have succeeded the inauguration of Responsible Government. {170} VII _DISCURSIVE NOTES ON TASMANIA_ The restriction of the immigration of coloured races--Betting and lotteries--The adoption of a modification of Hare's System of Voting--Conflicts between the two Houses of Parliament--Finance and taxation--Land Grant Railways. The session of the Tasmanian Parliament in 1896 was of a quiet character as far as the Ministerial programme was concerned. Measures were introduced, among others, for the extension to certain coloured races of the restrictions imposed upon the immigration of the Chinese, for the better suppression of public betting and gaming, for the inspection of certain products intended for export, for the consolidation and amendment of the electoral laws, and for the reference to a plebiscite of disputes between the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council.