DUE TO RETIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 February 1938, Page 10

DUE TO RETIRE

SIR WALTER CARNCROSS. The present seven-year term of the lion. Sii- Walter Carncross as a member of the Legislative Council will expire on March 17 next. Close on half a century of membership of the New Zealand Legislature, stands to his credit. He. was first called to the Council in March. 1903, and has sat. continuously in that Chamber ever since. For 12 years before that he occupied a seat in the House of Representatives. Sir Walter has served for over 19 years as Speaker of the Upper House, having tilled that, post ever since he was first, elected to it on November 1, 1918. No decision has yet been made as to whether he is to be reappointed for a, further period of seven years on the expiry of his present term, but in political quarters his reappointment is regarded as practically certain. There will be no further retirements from the Council until 19-11), when the terms of the Hon. J. A. Hanan and the Hon. C. J. Carrington will expire. From the point of view of continuous service, Sir Walter is the “father” of the New Zealand Parliament. Born at Bendigo, Australia, in 1855, he has had a. unique Parliamentary career. With his parents he came to New Zealand al an early age. He was elected to represent Taieri in the House of Represenatives in 1890, when the Atkinson Alinistry was defeated and John Ballance came into office. For 12 years he continued to sit as member for that constituency, Sir Walter being attracted toward the end of his fourth term by the prospects in the Norlh Island, and deciding not to contest another election.

In 1903 he was called to the Legislative Council, being first, elected Speaker in 1918 in succession to the Hon. Sir Charles Johnston. From 1910 until liis election as Speaker he was Chairman of Committees, and he is said to possess the longest service of any Speaker in the British Empire. In 1916 lie Was one of the four delegates who visited England at the invitation of the Empire Parliamentary Association, and in 1922 he received a knighthood.

In his younger days Sir Walter was an enthusiastic volunteer, being captain of the East Taieri Rifles. Taking up journalism as a profession, he founded the “Taieri Advocate” at Mosgiel in 1881, a bi-weekly journal which he edited for 20 years. On going to Taranaki in 1901, he the “Eltham Argus,” which he conducted continuously for 30 years, finally retiring from business in 1931 after completing 50 years as a journalist. After the death of the Liberal leader, Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon, Sir Walter was called in to reorganise the party’s official organ, the “New Zealand Times.” Sir Walter is the last of the associates of Ballance, Seddon and McKenzie, and recalls the days when big political battles were fought on such questions as. the incidence of taxation, cutting up of large estates and the placing of Labour legislation on the Statute Book. ■ There Was strorife opposition to the measures of the Liberal Government, and among the able debaters of the Conservative Opposition were such noted men as Sir John Hall, William Rolleston, Captain Russell, Edwin Mitchelson and Sir Francis Bell.