Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/176

I50 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY . The Railway-Builders Boucaut, and Strangways — to mention only successive Premiers, and omitting the lieutenants, who were frequently more capable than their leaders — were pitted against each other, there were sure to be stern conflicts. To understand the position, it will be necessary to enter somewhat into detail. Upon the death of Sir Dominick Daly, Lieutenant-Colonel F. G. Hamley, senior officer in command of the Imperial forces in the Province, was sworn in as Acting Governor on February 20, 1868. Little is now known of this gentleman's career, but he showed excellent jxitience and judgment at a critical period. He entered the army as ensign in the 1 2th Foot in 1835, and, after leaving South Australia, attained the rank of General. He died in 1876. The political turmoil, in which there was a lull towards the termination of Governor Daly's administration, was renewed soon after his death. The fourth Parliament was dissolved in March, 1868, and the fifth met on July 31. The elections had been conducted with spirit, land reform and protection or free trade being the questions chiefly discussed. It was upon the former item that most of the schemes referred to were built. The policy of the Ayers Ministry had principally to do with the Northern Territory, and it was proposed to liberalise the conditions under which land had been allotted there. Resolutions to this effect were carried, whereupon the question of land reform was grappled with. The drought in the pastoral and agricultural districts had seriously affected the revenue returns, and on September 3 the Budget speech divulged a deficiency of ;^5oo,ooo in the preceding three years' finances. The incidence of this drought seemed to increase the desire of legislators to reform the land system. Since the "squatters'" controversy was initiated in 1864, public thought had dwelt upon the whole question of land alienation which it opened up, and views upon it were diverse and sometimes excited. The Ayers Government offered a solution, but the House refused to accept it, and on September 24 Mr. Ayers resigned. After Mr. Alexander Hay and Mr. William Townsend had made separate and vain attempts to form Cabinets, Mr. John Hart succeeded. He met Parliament, and, a few days later, resigned. On October 13, Mr. Ayers again returned to power; but he did not have the confidence of the majority, and, on the 23rd, handed in his resignation. A dissolution was advised, but the Acting Governor sent for Mr. H. B. T. Strangways, who formed a new Ministry, and was able to control the House for 18 months. The preceding few weeks had been given up to confusion and what one critic called " crisis- mongering." Land Bills had been introduced by the successive Ministries, who were unable to carry them. Mr. Strangways brought in a new measure, and this in a year or two produced wide-reaching prosperity. The son of the late Henry Bull Strangways, J. P., of Shapwick, Somerset, Colonel-Commandant of the Polden Hill (Somerset) local militia, he was born in 1832. He came to South Australia as a boy, but, returning to England, he entered at Middle Temple in November, 1851, and was called to the Bar in June, 1856. He almost immediately resumed his residence in South Australia, and was elected a member of the House of Assembly in 1858. He declined to form a Government in i860, but