NEXT SESSION OF PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12354, 26 January 1926, Page 7

NEXT SESSION OF PARLIAMENT

WILL MEMBERS BE CALLED EARLIER IN THE YEAR THAN USUAL? MUCH DEPENDS OjN IMPERIAL CONFERENCE PROBABILITIES ARE HOUSE WILL ASSEMBLE IN JUNE It I* quite clear from the latest available information from England that an Imperial Confer once this year is contemplated. The cable agent, however, does not seem to have any definite idea as to which month of thp year the conference will be fixed for.

The matter interests New 'Zealand : in more ways than one. In the first | place New Zealand must be represent- | ed at the Conference, and noi doubt i the representative will be the Prime j Minister, the Hon. J. G. Coates, j Secondly, if the Conference is held as early as some desire it, there wiill have , to be an early session of the New Zea- j land Parliament. Various early dates for the Confer- | ence have been suggested—dates which 1 would entail the early meeting of the j New Zealand Parliament in order to I allow the Prime Minister to be pre- j sent in London in good time —but the ■ trouble is the present political crisis j in Canada. Canada, in the throes of a political upheaval, could not be expected to be able to make up its mind I on a question of such great.moment as that of representation at “ho Im-

perial gathering. Keen as some of those at Home are for a fairly earlv Conference, it is unlikely that one will be called until all concerned can be properly represented. The chances are that Canada will have to have another election in the very near future. This will delay matters avdiile, and in putting back the date of the Conference it may also dispense with the need for an early session of the New Zealand Parliament. For a time a session in March looked a. possibility, but the present indications are that that will he unnecessary and that the House will he called together in June, as is the custom. It seems probable that the Imperial Conference will not meet till about October, and if this is the case the first session of the new Parliament will-not bo a long one.