BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 October 1924, Page 8

BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

HOW 7 ; IT IS ELECTED AND DIStoOIAEIA Parliament is summoned by the merit of tne sovereign issued out of Chancery, and is dissolved in similar raslilon. ine will of tne Sovereign is supreme in tnese matters, cnougn it is usual in tnese days for tne mirig to act under tne .idvice or the Prime iVJinister, who is the voice of the Cab 1 net and of tlte party ;ir power 'llie present form of the .British Parliament, as divined into two mouses of Legislature, tne Lords and the Common s, dates from tne the fouiteenth century. ine House of _,ords consists of peers only who hold their seats (',) by ncrtditary right, (2) by creation ut the (d) hy virtue of office—Law Lords and English Archbishops and iiisnops, of which there are tweivyby election for af e m the case of Irish peers, and (5) by election for duration of the Parliament i s m the case of Scottish peers. The full House consists of about 740 members, but its actual voting strength is only 7VO. The House o.f Commons consists of members representing county, borough &nd University constituencies. No one under 21 years of age can be a member of Parliament. .Clergymen of the Church of England, ministers •of the Church of Scotland, and Homan Catholic priests are disqualified from sitting as members, as are Government contractors, sheriffs, and returning officers for the localities in which they ac.t. No English or Scottish peers can be elected to the House of Commons, but non-representative Irish peers are eligible. Under .the Act of lfflß women are now eligible to occupy a seat, Lady Astor being the first woman to be so- honoured

In 19H- by resolution of the House of Commons, provision was first made for the payment of members, iho salary being fixed at £4OO per annum. This amount can only be paid to these who are not already in receipt of remuneration as officers of the House, as Ministers, or of the King’s Household This provision does not extend to the House of Lords.

Male electors must have ’esid.id, or occupied business premises of an annual value of not less than £lO, in the same parliamentary borough or county, or one contiguous thereto, for six months. A woman voter must be thirty years of age, and must be entitled to vote in respect of the oecur tu-n of premises of a yearly value of £5, or she may be the wife of a husband so entitled to vote. The University franchise requires a man to he 21 years of age and a. woman 30vears, and each must have taken a decree m* in the case of a woman, have fulfilled the conditions which entitle a man to a degree.

No person may. vote in more than constituencies, for one of which, in the case of a man, there must be residential qualification, and in the case of a woman her own or her husband’s. Mm second vote must rest on a different ooalificatio.n. Infants, peers, idiots, limah'-f.. aliens, and bankrupts are disqmlined Prom registration 'as voters. At a general election all noils must be taken on the same day.‘except in the case of Orkney and Shetland, and of TTniyers'ty elections. Provision is made for absent electors to vote, in omo eaves bv proxv, .The present number of memhers in tho House of Commons is 615 though I™ to 1022 it was 707. Ireland at IQOQiTno be,n " lnci,uled ' year l*'. 281.403 persons were qualified to ote, of wmrV> 7,831.583 were women.