PRIVY COUNCIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22406, 30 April 1936, Page 12

PRIVY COUNCIL

MR. SAVAGE A MEMBER APPROVAL GIVEN BY KING OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT [BY TELECRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Wednesday The Governor-General, Viscount Galway, announced to-day that His Majesty the King had been graciously pleased to approve of the appointment of the Hon. M. J. Savage, Prime Minister of Now Zealand, to bo a member of the Privy Council. The Privy Council is descended from the Court of the Norman kings and was then a general feudal assembly, performing all the functions of central government without differentiating between them. Out of this Court developed the King's Council, which, by the time of King Henry VII., had bcome an important instrument of the Crown, with a conciliar oath and a more determinate membership. In Tudor times there was a further division of functions and out of the King's Council grow chiefly "the council at court" and "the King's Council in the Star Chamber." The former body became the Privy Council. Tho membership has grown from about 20, in the Middle Ages, to over 300. Members of the Council are entitled to bo designated "the Bight Honourable," and consist mostly of dignitaries who havo held, or hold, high political, judicial or ecclesiastical office in Britain, the Dominions or tho colonies. Office lasts for tho life of tho Sovereign, and six months after, but it is tho modern custom for the new King to renew the appointment. Members of the British Cabinet are necessarily Privy Councillors, and they principally form the acting Privy Council on such rare occasions as it is required to function. The Council is summoned to act "with others" upon the demise of the King. The Lord President of tho Council, a position occupied at present by Mr. Stanley Baldwin, is tho Fifth Great Officer of State, and as such is always a prominent member of tho Cabinet. Sir Michael Myers (Chief Justice) and Messrs. J. G. Coates and G. W. Forbes are other New Zealand members of the Privy Council, and two former Governors-General of the Dominion, tho Earl of Liverpool and Lord Bledisloe, are also "counsellors." MANY CONGRATULATIONS "WELL-DESERVED HONOUR" [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON, "Wednesday Congratulations on his appointment to the Privy Council were freely extended to-day to tho Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage. He had only to walk along tho corridors of Parliament Buildings to be stopped every yard or so and receive tho good wishes' of political supporters and opponents alike. At the start of his speech on the Primary Products Marketing Bill in tho House of Representatives to-night, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates (Opposition —Kaipara) made the first reference in the House to the honour conferred on the Prime Minister. There was no limit, he said, to the height to which a man could rise, provided he could show his worth, and ho congratulated both Mr. Savage and the Government of which ho was the leader, on a well-deserved distinction. Later in the debate, Mr. H. Atmoro (Independent—Nelson) voiced his congratulations. Subsequently Mr. Savage, when he rose to speak in tho debate, returned thanks. "I can do no better, he said, "than say that I will try to deserve the honour conferred on me by the King, and to deserve the congratulations of my friends."