ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21113, 22 February 1932, Page 6

ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

PARLIAMENT'S FIRST TASK.'

an old practice altered.

PROBABLE ORIGIIN OF TITLE. A quaint old practice; which has been followed in the New Zealand House of 6 Representatives for as long as memory runs, in connection with the election of the Speaker, is apparently to be dropped when the new Parliament meets to-mor-row. On the day fixed for the assembling of the two chamber:;, the members of the House meet and are sworn in by the clerk. ' Their first business is the choice of their Speaker.. The clerk is still in charge of the proceedings, and calls on the item of business. Hitherto, when a member rose to make a nomination, instead of his calling the member by a Speaker - himself would do before the member had the right" to proceed, the -clerk silently k pointed to him with the handle of his pen. If more than one had risen at the same time, then he pointed to the member he selected. The member thus indicated was then entitled to address the House, and when the merits of the candidate or candidates had been expounded, it was the clerk who put the question. That was the procedure at the first sitting of 1929. Two years ago, however, the standing orders of the House were amended, and in the new clause relating to the election of Speaker it is expressly stated that the nominator shall be "called upon by the clerk," evidently viva voce. There is not even a tradition in New Zealand as to how the old dumb-motion practice 'arose. If itf was on the principle that only menders are entitled to use their tongues in the House, that principle is contradicted by the fact that the clerk's voice is often heard. It is he who calls on each order of the day, and ■who "reads" each bill a first, second, or a third time when that course has been resolved upon, though such "reading" consists merely in calling its v short title. Seeing, however, that when the House of Representative% first met in Auckland in 1854, it modelled its proceedings on those of the House of Commons of that time, which probably included the pen-pointing act, that is likely to be the source of the little official gesture. This is not the only curious anomaly in Parliamentary practice. The very title of the Speaker is at variance with the modern sense of the word, seeing that he speaks less than any of his brother members. Generally his functions during a debate are to keep order, which occasionally entails the giving of reasoned rulings, to put questions for decision, and to announce the result. The origin of his title is explained by constitutional history writers as having arisen fron\ the fact that in the very early* days of Parliament, under the Norman kings, it was his duty to represent to the Sovereign the sense of the House on any question—in other words, to speak for the House in the throne-room. In those primitive days the House did not crystallise its views in resolutions, so that it was the Speaker's duty to listen carefully to the debates, and then sum up their meaning, as he understood it, to the monarch. There are very precise directions in the standing orders, both old and new, as to where the Speaker-elect shall stand, and how he shall stand, in expressing to the House his sense of the honour and trust reposed in him —for this is what they direct in as muny words that he is to do. •