LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 137, 6 December 1918, Page 8

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

TO-DAY'S SESSION The Legislative Council met at 11 a.m. The Christ's College Ordinance Amendment Bill was read a third time and passed. Several local Bills were received from the House of Representatives and read a first time. The Council resolved to insist upon the amendments it had made in the Reformatory Institutions Amendment Bill, on ground that the powers given by the Bill were powers that should be reserved for the Executive Council. Reasons were submitted this afternoon far dissenting from the amendments made by fcho Council in the Legislative Council Amendment Bill. The first reason related to a technical amendment, and wat agreed to. ■ ' The second dissented from the new sections concerning women in Parliament on the ground that the subject of those sections should be dealt with by separate legislation, >wbich could be fully considiered by the House and the; Council. The inclusion of the principle in an amendment would "not afford the opportunity for full consideration. The Hon. J. T. Paul referred to the admission of women to legislative bodies in other parts of the world-. The reason stated for dissent was that this was a new principle; but was it? Four years ago the Legislative Council embodied in the Legislative Council Act, 1914, the ■ principle that women should, sit in the Legislative Council so soon as they were eligible to ■sit-in the House of Representatives. The matter of whether they should sit in the Houee of Representatives was a matter for the House of Representatives. On that occasion Sir Francis Bell said that the question of women sitting in Parliament was i a question for Parliament, which must be settled by a Bill. " Sir Francis Bell: Yes; by a Bill. I say that now. Mr. Paul said that the Council had already assented to the principle. j ; ■ '/ (Proceeding.) [Earlier, proceedings on the Bill > are reported on page 7.]