N.S.W. POLITICS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2005, 22 December 1921, Page 5

N.S.W. POLITICS.

[By Electric Cable—Copyright.! [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.] SYDNEY, December 21. With the re-establishment of the .Dooley Government on the Treasury benches, the Speakership question again commands attention. When the Assembly met on Tuesday Mr Hickey’s resignation was read by the clerk, whereupon Sir George Fuller invited volunteers for the chair. Mr Bagnall, secretary of »the Nationalist Party, volunteered as a protest against the coalition of the Nationals and Progressives, stating that he would not associate himself with the latter, who assassinated the National Party at the elections. Mr Bagnall received no nomination. The incident has an Important bearing on the future life of Parliament as Mr Levy, though offering to accept the Speakership to extricate Parliament from an impasse may now remain in the chair to keep Mr Bagnall out. Such action would be an advantage to the opposition, which Is now in a majority of at least one with rumours of other defections. The Labour Party emerges from the reshuffling the least damaged. Its solidarity is unimpaired, while trae Progressives arc seemingly disrupted. Seven members of the latter refused to meet the rest of the party last night, and passed a resolution that the Progressive Party is still a separate entity in fact as well as in name. Mr Dooley meets the house to-day, after which a prorogation for two months is likely.