 Absent a solution to the railway problem , the government continued its deficits . Brownlee advocated deep cuts in spending to bring them under control , and , when Greenfield demurred , began to cut staff in his own department . He found an ally in Richard Gavin Reid in 1923 when Greenfield , exhausted by his responsibilities , appointed the latter to replace him as Provincial Treasurer . Reid impressed on the cabinet the need for drastic economy in all departments and , by 1925 ( the last year of Greenfield 's Premiership ) , the government at last showed a surplus , a state that would persist until the beginning of the Great Depression , with the exception of a small deficit in 1927 . 
