NEW SPEAKER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 15, 18 July 1939, Page 10

NEW SPEAKER

UPPER HOUSE

HON. M. FAGAN CHOSEN

POPULAR CHOICE

Following the expiration of the term of the Hon. Sir Walter Carncross as Speaker of the Legislative Council, two important changes took place in the Council this afternoon. When the Council assembled a "call of members" was taken and the election of a Speaker was then proceeded with. The Hon. Mark Fagan, avlio has. been Leader of the Council and I a member of the Labour Cabinet without portfolio since the Government assumed office, was chosen. The Hon. D. Wilson is likely to lake the ,place of Mr. Fagan as Leader.

Mr. Fagan announced earlier that lie had placed his resignation as Leader of the Legislative Council and Minister without portfolio in the hands of the Prime, Minister today.

This is the first occasion on which the Leader of the Upper House has been elected to this responsible position. In both personality and ability Mr. Fagan has been an outstanding figure in the Council and his election to the Speakership was a tribute to his high qualities, which are recognised both by supporters and opponents of the Government.

It is understood that the Hon. D. Wilson will succeed Mr. Fagan as Leader. He has been national secretary of the Labour Party for the past five years and a member of the Council since 1937.

The new Speaker of the Legislative Council is one of the most popular figures in the Labour movement. He has been associated with its progress since its beginning in 1907. For thirty years he lived at Reefton. where he was engaged in quartz mining, and for seventeen years he was secretary of the Reefton Quartz Miners' Union,

and was also workmen's inspector for that period..

He had a distinguished record in industrial negotiations and while acting for the miners as agent in the Arbitration Court was responsible for many reforms in their working conditions.

Appointed to the Upper House by Sir Joseph Ward in 1930, Mr. Fagan quickly earned the respect of all members. This was shown by his selection in 1935 as the Council's representative at the British Empire Parliamentary Conference in London in that year. At that time there were only two Labour members in the Upper House, the other being the Hon. T. F. O'Byrne, of Southland. When Mr. Nash made •his first visit to England in 1936, Mr. Fagan was appointed Acting Minister of Customs and in that capacity relieved Mr. Nash of many strenuous duties. He was so successful in this office that he has been associated with the portfolio ever since.