TWO NEW MEMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 148, 25 June 1941, Page 8

TWO NEW MEMBERS

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

SEVEN NOT REAPPOINTED

STRENGTH REDUCED

Two new appointments to the Legislative Council were announced last night by the Acting Prime Minister (Mr, Nash). They are Mr. James dimming and Mr. Richard Eddy, both of Wellington. Mr. Nash also announced that theHons. Thomas Francis O'Byj?ne (Southland), William Perry (Wei-, lington), Fred. Waite, D.S.O. (Otago), and Vincent A. Ward (Wellington) had been reappointed to the Council for, a further term. The two new members have been prominent in the Labour movement for many years, both being well known in Wellington, Mr. Gumming for .us service on Hutt Valley local bodies and Mr. Eddy as • president of the New Zealand Workers' Union. Before i coming to Wellington Mr. Cumming, who was born at Malvern, ' Canterbury, 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-opera-tive party which included the present Minister of National Service (Mr. Semple) and which put through the Orongorongo Tunnel for Wellington's water supply system. He held executive positions on miners' unions in the Waikato and was chairman of the North Island miners' district council. He came to Petone in 1920, subsequently working on the waterfront, and was president of the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union for two years. He has been a member of the Petone Borough Council for eleven years and of the Petone and Lower Hutt Gas Lighting Board for three terms, for two oi which he has been chairman. Mr. Cumming is president of the Hutt Labour Representation Committee and secretary of the Petone branch of. the Labour Party. ~ I Mr. Eddy, who was also born in Canterbury, has been actively and prominently associated with the Labour movement in New Zealand for upwards of 40 years. His youth was spent as a farm worker and shearer and in 1912 he became an organiser for the New Zealand Workers' Union, in which he rose to become president, and has held this office for the past six years. Mr. Eddy is also vice-pre-[sident of the New Zealand Federation o\ Labour and a member of the national executive of the Labour Party. He is a member of the War Council, the Industrial Emergency Council and the 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. SMALLER COUNCIL. The seven-year term of the four members who have been reappointed expired last Sunday. There are seven others whose' appointments also expired last Sunday, but who have not been reappointed. They are: The Hons. J. Alexander (Auckland), T. Bloodworth (Auckland), A. Burns (Auckland), E. R, Davis (Auckland), W. Hay ward (Canterbury), J. McLeod (Taranaki), Sir R. H. Rhodes (Canterbury). Another Councillor who has not been reappointed is the Hon. Sir James Allen, whose appointment ex[pired on June 1. The Legislative Council'now comprises 31 members; before there were 37 members.