to pass a Redistribution of Seats Bill before Supply was granted, and by persisting in these tactics they compelled the Government to agree to a compromise. The Palmer Ministry on assuming office had found the public finances in a bad way, but partly through good management and partly with the help of good seasons and improving markets for exports, they retired in January, 1874, after a succession of surpluses, and with railway construction being vigorously pushed on both in Southern and Central districts. In January, 1874, when the new Parliament met after the general election, Mr. Palmer and his colleagues found themselves in so hopeless a minority that they resigned without awaiting a debate on the Address in Reply. Amidst great hilarity in the Assembly, and despite the vehement protests of the candidate, Mr. William Henry Walsh was elected Speaker, although a member of the Palmer party; and on his refusal to accept the office was humorously threatened with the penalty of disobedience to the order of the House. But after consideration he assumed the Speakership, and while in the chair discharged his duties with credit. The Macalister-Hemmant Ministry forthwith assumed office, Mr. Lilley, who made the announcement in the Assembly on their behalf, declining a portfolio. Shortly afterwards he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court. The Ministry was initiated with Mr. MacDevitt as Attorney-General, but in August following he retired, and Mr. S. W. Griffith, who had proved an inconvenient supporter of the Government as the leader of a subsection, accepted the portfolio. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas McIlwraith was Mr. Macalister's Minister for Works, but at the close of the first session he differed from the Premier on the question of a great private railway scheme, and therefore resigned office. On the House reassembling in 1875 Mr. McIlwraith took the front cross-bench seat next the gangway on the Opposition side, and, while not approving of all the tactics of the party led by Mr. Palmer, gave it his general support. The first session of the Parliament had been distinguished by the passing of a Customs tariff incidentally protective, Mr. Hemmant, the Treasurer, showing uncommon qualities as a financial speaker. He closed his first year at the Treasury with an apparent deficit of L200,762. His predecessor, when making his Financial Statement in 1872, had anticipated a deficit. To prevent this he proposed--and Parliament agreed to the proposition--to transfer L350,000 from the Loan Fund to the Consolidated Revenue Fund to meet the Treasury bills floated or authorised to cover the accumulated deficits of earlier years. Mr. Hemmant disapproved of this method of financing, and rectified matters as far as possible by transferring to a Surplus Revenue Fund L240,000, which left him with a deficit of L200,762. This was equivalent to recouping the Loan Fund to the extent of L240,000, as the money was to be used for public works