Continuous Ministry

The Continuous Ministry or Continuous Cabinet was an informal designation used to describe two nineteenth century colonial governments: in Queensland, Australia from 1890 to 1899; and in New Zealand from 1876 to 1890 (or 1887) except for 1877-79 & 1884-87.

Continuous Ministry (Queensland)

The Continuous Ministry or Continuous Cabinet was an informal designation used to describe the grouping in the Queensland Parliament that existed from 1890 to 1899, and provided six colonial-era Premiers of Queensland.

The Ministry was formed from a merging of Samuel Griffith's Liberal faction with Sir Thomas McIlwraith's Conservatives, forming the humorously-titled Griffilwraith. This grouping encompassed all but a few dissident liberal politicians in the Legislative Assembly and maintained control of the Parliament for two decades by steadily promoting its members into ministerial positions.

The Ministerialists, many of whom were businessmen for whom their parliamentary career was not their primary concern, were primarily conservative in character. They supported the development of the colony's sugar cane, beef cattle, mining and wool industries that were to remain the backbone of Queensland's economy for a century.

The Ministerialists fractured in December 1899 and fell to the Labor government of Anderson Dawson, which, with a six-day period in office, was the first government of its type anywhere in the world. The shocked faction quickly regrouped to defeat Dawson on the floor of Parliament.

The Ministry eventually broke apart completely after disgruntled backbenchers became embittered by their exclusion from the inner clique of cabinet ministers. Digby Denham led a group into the coalition government of Arthur Morgan, and the Continuous Ministry came to an end.

Premiers during the Continuous Ministry

• Samuel Griffith August 1890-March 1893
• Sir Thomas McIlwraith March 1893-October 1893
• Hugh Nelson October 1893-April 1898
• Thomas Byrnes April 1898-October 1898
• James Dickson October 1898-December 1899
• Robert Philp December 1899-September 1903

Continuous Ministry (New Zealand)

The Continuous Ministry is a term used to describe the government of New Zealand from 1876 to 1890 (or 1887), except for 1877-79 and 1884-87. Sir Harry Atkinson was the leading figure, although Sir John Hall and Sir Frederick Whitaker also served as Premiers, and William Rolleston was also part of the ministry. The term derives from William Pember Reeves, who as a Liberal politician emphasized the oligarchical and conservative tendencies of the ministry members, and downplayed as reformers from above Atkinson and Rolleston, even though they advocated some reforms similar to those of the Liberals of the 1890s. A later historian, Keith Sinclair, detached the Scarecrow Ministry of 1887-90 as a new government rather than a continuation of the Continuous Ministry, although this ministry was formed by Atkinson ^[1]. As formal political parties did not exist at this time, ministries had to be formed by negotiation with individual members, and were liable to be defeated.

The ministries of the Continuous Ministry were:

• Atkinson Ministry, 1876: 1 September 1876 to 13 September 1876
• Atkinson Ministry, 1876-1877 (Reconstituted): 13 September 1876 to 13 October 1877
• Hall Ministry, 1879-1882: 8 October 1879 to 21 April 1882
• Whitaker Ministry, 1882-1883: 21 April 1882 to 25 September 1883
• Atkinson Ministry, 1883-1884: 25 September 1883 to 16 August 1884
• Atkinson Ministry, 1884: 28 August 1884 to 3 September 1884
• Atkinson Ministry, 1887-91: 8 October 1887 to 24 January 1891 (known as the Scarecrow Ministry)

The two (or three) ministries in the period that were not part of the Continuous Ministry were:

• Grey Ministry, 1877-79: 13 October 1877 to 8 October 1879
• Stout-Vogel Ministry, 1884: 16 August 1884 to 28 August 1884
• Stout-Vogel Ministry, 1884-1887: 3 September 1884 to 8 October 1887

References

1. ^ Hamer, David (1988). The New Zealand Liberals: The Years of Power, 1891-1912 (1 ed.). Auckland: Auckland University Press. p. 15. ISBN 1 86940 014 3.