FIRST SESSION IN MAY

Southland Times, Issue 23675, 25 November 1938, Page 6

FIRST SESSION IN MAY

NEW PARLIAMENT’S ASSEMBLY GOVERNMENT’S PRESENT PLANS ■- The first session of the new Parliament of New Zealand will be held in May, unless changes in the international situation compel an earlier summoning of the House. This announcement was made to The Press, Christchurch, by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage), in a telephone conversation. “That is only a formality, commented Mr Savage, when he was asked if the House was to meet on February 23, the date announced in an “extraordinary” to last week’s Gazette. Parliament is prorogued from time to time, but the Government can call Parliament together at any time. We cannot say dogmatically when the House will meet, but we are trying to get back to the one session a year. We are hoping to meet again in May in* the ordinary way.” Departmental reports and Government accounts had to be rdady for the assembly of Parliament, and the Government desired to hold the session as far away from the holiday season as was possible. “But in view of the state of the world today and things generally he would be a bold man who would say IHat Parliament -would not meet until May,” said Mr Savage. “The Government, in calling Parliament together, has to be guided by circumstances as they are. The present intention is that Parliament will meet as usual, as soon as the Government accounts are closed.” Before the advent of the Labour Government, the custom, was for Parliament to assemble in June and sit till early November. In an interview with The Press two days after the election last month, Mr Savage said, when questioned on the likely date for the meeting of the twenty-sixth Parliament: “We want to get back to the old system of one session a year, but that is not always possible, of course.”