EMPIRE PARLIAMENTS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 109, 1 February 1934, Page 16

EMPIRE PARLIAMENTS

Practice and Procedure METHODS OF THE CLOSURE With the recent formation of the Society of Clerks-at-the-Table in Empire Parliaments, steps were taken to Issue an official journal dealing with various phases of Parliamentary practice and procedure. The journal is to be published annually, and. its editor is the secretary of the society, Mr. Owen Clough, C.M.G. The first volume contains, In addition to editorial notes, articles dealing with the history of the office of the Clerk or the Parliaments at Westminster; the methods of the closure in the. Imperial House of Commons; the working of the Joint sitting system for dealing with deadlocks as well as with legislation upon constitutionally entrenched subjects in South Africa; acoustics of buildings; the “process of suggestion In Australia, which deals with tne treatment of money Bills by the two Houses. - ' - , In a series of ten articles, comparison is made between the practices of the various Parliaments of the Empire in regard to time limit of speeches, the rights of Ministers to sit and speak in both Houses, the remuneration and free facilities granted to M.P.’s. A list of moks is given suggesting the nucleus >f a Statesmen’s Reference Library, as n-ell as a collection of works suitable tor those making a special study of Parliamentary procedure.