Johnny Fawkner's German immigrants sing a national song. To his amazement they broke out with "We'll crown the world with Irish boys, with Paddies and no more." But the devices for checking the Irish invasion were not exhausted. I was informed at this time from London that directions were sent to the Board of Advice, who had the management of immigration, to take care that the bulk of Irish immigrants were selected from the north of Ireland. I asked the Commissioner of Customs in the House how he considered himself entitled to modify an Act of Parliament by a secret instruction of this nature. He replied that the order had not come from him, and that for his part he considered it a matter of complete indifference whether immigrants were taken from the north of Ireland or the south. As it was a matter of complete indifference, I said the order might be withdrawn, and some effectual measures taken to prohibit any future devices which the Minister might find it necessary to disown. I saw the Chief Secretary on the subject, and asked him to appoint a gentleman to represent Irish Catholics on the Board of Advice, and at my instance he selected Mr. Cashel Hoey.
The finances were still in an unsatisfactory condition, and towards the end of this period the Government proposed to replenish the Treasury by a Property Tax of sixpence in the pound. It seemed to me that this tax would bear with peculiar severity on industry, and I offered it a decisive opposition. The Argus supported it strenuously, and I illustrated the unfairness of the proposal by the way it would affect a farmer among my constituents and the proprietors of the Argus, the farmer being taxed on nearly his entire income, and the newspaper proprietor only on the premises where his business was transacted.
The country took up the resistance vigorously, and after a couple of weeks I was enabled to announce that the colony answered the appeal of the Government, as the philanthropist in Canning's squib answered the needy knifegrinder: "I give thee sixpence? I'd see thee d——d first." The McCulloch administration fell, and the Governor sent for me and authorised me to form a new Cabinet.
Before entering on the business of the new Administration,
