THE NEW PARLIAMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22741, 29 November 1935, Page 8

THE NEW PARLIAMENT

One of the comments prompted by an examination of the personnel of the Parliament chosen by the electors on Wednesday is that the percentage of new members is exceptionally high. In a House of 80 representatives no fewer than 32, or 40 per cent., will take their seats for the first time. This proportion has not been approached in any previous Parliament. Of the 32 newcomers, 28 are members of the Labour Party—a fact which should serve to emphasise the remarkable success of Labour's appeal to the electorate. In all, 48 former legislators will find their way back to familiar benches—not altogether familiar, perhaps, since the remnants of the Coalition will now have the privilege of addressing Mr Speaker from the Opposition side of the House. It may be judged from the particulars which we have published respecting them that the qualifications of the members who await initiation are of such a character that the election will definitely not contribute to any lowering of the standard —not, unfortunately, so high as it might be —of Parliamentary representation. It would, of course, be idle to pretend that among the new members there are not some whose qualifications to give the class of service the electors are entitled to expect from. them do not appear on the surface. Members of this stamp are to be found in every Parliament. But on the whole it would seem to be a reasonably-founded conclusion that there are men amongst the new representatives who are capable of bringing wide and varied knowledge to bear on the problems that will confront Mr Savage and his associates in the first Labour Ministry. It is not to be inferred that an embarrassment of talent will be placed at Mr Savage's disposal, but he should be able to rely on the co-operation of a competent group of Cabinet colleagues and committeemen. We mentioned yesterday that three Ministers in the National Government were to be numbered among the notable " casualties " of the election. Sir Alexander Young was unseated in Hamilton and Mr Bitchener in Waitaki, and it is probable that Mr Macmillan has been rejected in Tauranga. Each of these Ministers had a record of useful Parliamentary service which, at this stage, the country will doubtless remember gratefully. Four other candidates who had held Ministerial rank were defeated at the polls. Mr Downie Stewart was a member of the Reform Government for seven years as well as a member of the National Government during a portion of the last Parliamentary term, while Mr Murdoch, Mr Stallworthy and Mr Veiteh each held office in the pre-Coalition Government led by Mr Forbes. Mr Veiteh, incidentally, sought the confidence of the electors of Wanganui on this occasion as deputy leader of the illstarred Democrat Party, of which Mr Atmore was the sole candidate to survive the ordeal of the polls. Mr Coates, it is to be noted, had a hard struggle to stave off the challenge of Mr Grounds in Kaipara, an electorate which the former Reform leader appeared to have made 'peculiarly his own. The strength of the support given to Mr, Grounds may- be sidered surprising when his • recent substantial defeat at an election of a member of the Dairy Produce. Board is recalled. None of the remaining members of the National Government was seriously challenged. Mr Hargest, who changed over from Invercargill to Awarua following the retirement of Mr Perrelle, had no difficulty in holding that seat for the National Party. It is probable that he would have been equally successful in Invercargill, where a badly split vote gave what has been a safe anti-Social-ist seat to the Labour Party. Two other losses sustained by the National Party are worthy of mention. Mr J. N. Massey and his brother, Mr W. W. Massey, were defeated in Franklin and Haui'aki respectively, the Democrat vote operating to Labour's advantage in the latter electorate. The Massey tradition seems to have counted for very little in these contests.