WOMEN MEMBERS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 88, 11 October 1919, Page 7

WOMEN MEMBERS

PARLIAMENT AT LOGGERHEADS

The message, from the House of Representatives, asking that & conference be held to consider the reasons advanced by the Council for its amendments to j the Women's Parliamentary Eights Bill, came before the latter body yesterday. Sir Francis Bell moved that managers. ■be appointed, and that Sir Walter Buchanan, Sir John Sinclair, and: the Hon. O. Samuel act on behalf of the CohucU. In doing so, he said that a conference upon the message sent by the Council to the House could hardly be other than a matter of form, but1 he felt it would be discourteous to refuse the request that managers should state the position, which apparently the House had been unable to appreciate. (Hear, hear.y "I do not doubt," he continued, "that we may trust our managers to make perfectly plain the position which the Council has taken up, Quite apart from, anything of which we may have knowledge through the daily journals, I gather that the matter, as considered in the other branch of the Legislature, rested upon the merits of the question of the introduction of women into Parliament, which has nothing whatever to do with the point at issue. (Hear, hear.) Nor can \ye allow this irrelevant; question; to be introduced into the matter." Sir Francis added that the Council had its Speaker's ruling on the point, and frpm th^t ruling members did not differ. < Even, if members did differ 'from the ruling, they . nevertheless would be bound to defend it. The Council was uot relying on "moth.oaten precedents," but uppn a ruling given quite recently upon exaotjy. the same question in the .New South Wales Legislature. All that the managers ha.d open 7 far them to discues, he continued, wag the message sent to the House, and not any other aspect of the question, such as the merits of the proposal to admit women to 6eats in Parliament. If ever the House had power to1 ayer-ride the privileges of the Council, then the Council would be useless, for a}l its rights and powers would be threatened. The Council had no desire to interfere with tho privileges of the House. The Council respected and observed those privileges, and expected the House to adopt the same attitude in regard to the.rights of the.Council. It was not to be suggested for a moment, however, that the Council would ba intimidated by blank cartridge, such as, had been fired at it. / ' The motion ivas agreed to without further discussion, the time of meeting being fixed at 5.30 p.m. The Council met again at 8 p.m. to receive the report of the managers, but it adjourned immediately until Wednesday, no statement concerning the conference being made. It i» understood, however, that the conference also adjourned until Wednesday.