had never been surpassed in the colony’s politics before, and have never been equalled since.
Amidst all the clamour, however, important work had been done. Some of it was bad, but a great deal of it was good. In the first place Sir George Grey had the pleasure of seeing the Triennial Parliaments Act placed on the Statute Book, and the mortification of knowing that it was placed there by his opponents. It remains there still, and is regarded by the colony with satisfaction.
The Qualification of Electors Act placed on the Statute Book was not the measure Sir George Grey and some of his advanced supporters desired. They demanded the recognition of the one-man-one-vote principle. What they got was an Act setting forth two qualifications, “residential” and “freehold.” Under the former, a vote was given to every man who had resided in the colony for twelve months and in the district in which he voted for six months. Under the latter, every man who had a freehold property valued at £25 or over was granted the franchise. The Conservative Party looked upon the “freehold” qualification as a moderate recognition of the rights of property; the Liberal Party looked upon it as a great extension of the privileges of the propertied classes, as it gave the rich man power to vote in every district in which he liked to purchase £25 worth of freehold property.
The property tax, which was adopted, placed a burden of 1d. in the pound on the capital value of all assessed real and personal property, with an exemption up to £500. In after years it was execrated from end to end of the colony, and year after year, until it was repealed by the Liberal Party in 1891, it was the object of bitter attacks.
The session of 1879 is full of historical significance. It saw the end of the first break in the administration of the great Conservative Continuous Ministry, which governed this colony, with only two breaks, from 1870 to 1890. Five years later, the chain was broken again. Another five years had hardly passed before the famous Ministry was finally beaten out of office; and sixteen years after that, in 1905, the party
