POLITICAL CRISIS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 21, 23 December 1925, Page 9

POLITICAL CRISIS

NEW SOUTH WALES SENSATION. PRESSURE ON GOVERNOR. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) ■Received December 23, 11 a.m. SYDNEY. Dec. 23. It now transpires that the Governor was not actually a consenting party to flooding tho Legislative Council, His Excellency in tlio early stages rejecting tho Government’s demands. -At one stage it was thought by Cabinet that ho would resign. The Governor ultimately agreed to consult tho Dominion’s Office. It appears that Mr Lang had communicated direct with tho Homo Office, and tho Governor was subsequently notified from England that ho must accept advice of liis Ministers. No written undertaking was given to the Governor regarding tho Government s attitude towards tho abolition of the Council, but the undertaking was given verbally by a member of tlio Ministry. An influential section of the caucus is now clamouring for the abolition of tho Council and a bill to give effect to this will probably be introduced during tho present Parliament. The Government also intends to amend tho constitution to enable women to bo appointed to the Upper House. AA’itli tho aid of the new appointees tho Government succeeded in passing tho Government Railways Amendment Bill in the Legislative Council. _ The bill validates the action of the railway commissioners in restoring tho seniority of tho 1917 strikers. —Press Association. SWAMPING THE COUNCIL. UNRESERVED "CONDEMNATION. SYDNEY, Dec. 22. The Sydney Morning Herald, in again unreservedly condemning the swamping of the Legislative Council, declares that it is unprecedented, both as regards the number and the reasons given for the appointments. In touching on the suggestion that the Governor may have been guided by precedent, the Herald says he might as well have been guided by the New Zealand case, in which Lord Glasgow, when Governor, refused to make Council appointments proposed by the Ballance Government, but subsequently, on the advice of Lord Ripon, then head of the Colonial Office, His Excellency granted the Government’s request. The paper points out that Lord Ripon’s advice stressed the fact that ‘the new appointments did not bring the membership beyond what it previously had been and that they were for seven years only, not for life. In tho New South AVales case, both these provisions are over-ridden.—Press Association.

WIDOWS’ PENSIONS BILL,

AMENDMENTS AGREED TO. SYDNEY, Dec. 22. The Legislative Assembly agreed to the amendments made by the Legislative Council to tho AVidows’ Pensions Bill.—Press Association.