THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23364, 25 June 1941, Page 6

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Two New Members FOUR REAPPOINTMENTS (P.A.) WELLINGTON. June 24. The Acting-Prime Minister (the Hon. W. Nash) announced to-night that the following appointments had been made to the Legislative Council; Messrs James Gumming, Richard Eddy, Thomas Francis O’Byrne, William Perry, Fred Waite, D.5.0., and Vincent A. Ward. The first two are new appointments. The latter four are reappointments. Mr Eddy was born in Canterbury, and has been actively and prominently associated with the Labour movement in New Zealand for upwards of 40 years. His youth was spent on a farm, and as a shearer, and in 1912 he became an organiser for the New Zealand Workers’ Union, in which organisation he rose to become president, having held this office for the last six years. Mr Eddy is also vicepresident of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, and a member of the national executive of the Labour Party.- He is also a member of the War Council, the Industrial Emergency Council, th.' Primary Industry Council, and was a member of the special committee set up by the economic stabilisation conference which prepared a report on means to stabilise wages and costs. Mr Gumming was born m Malvern, Canterbury, in 1879, and has also been associated with the Labour movement over a long period. He had considerable experience as a miner on the West Coast and in the Waikato, and as an expert in tunnelling was one of the co-operative party, which included the present Minister for Manpower (the Hon. R. Semple), which put through the Orongorongo tunnel for the Wellington water supply system. He held executive positions in urtions in the Waikato, and was chairman of the North Island Miners’ District Council. He came to Petone in 1920, subsequently working on the wlterfront, and was president of the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union for two years. He has been a member of the Petone Borough Council for 11 years, and the Petone and 3 Lower Hutt Gas Lighting Board for three terms, for two of which he has been chairman. Mr Gumming is president of the Hutt Labour Representation Committee, and secretary of the Petone branch of the Labour Party.