OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 132, 27 July 1911, Page 5

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

THE PRELIMINARIES. At 2.30 o’clock this afternoon the final session of New Zealand’s seventeenth Parliament commenced. Tno usual interesting formalities wore observed, the members of the Lower House assembling and promptly adjourning to the Legislative Council chamber, where the programme of work for the session was outlined by his Excellency the Governor in the Speech from the Throne. Both Houses are in charge of acting leaders, Sir James Carroll taking the place of Sir Joseph Ward in the House of Representatives, while the Hon. Janies McGowan, formerly Minister of Minos and justice, will lead the Upper House until the return of the Attorney-General. The latter and the Prime Minister ai'o expected to arrive in New Zealand on August 22nd, by which time the House will probably be ready to discuss the Financial Statement and important measures of the session. This evening an Imprest Supply Bill, which must be passed this week, as the appropriations voted last session only extend until tlie end of July. All the Ministers arc in Wellington, and Sir Arthur Guinness, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has for several days been busy over the necessary preliminaries for the carrying on of legislative work. As the Speaker of the Legislative Council, Sir James Bowen, is still away from New Zealand on a holiday, tho chair will be filled by the Hon. W. C. E. Carncross, Chairman of Committees, who has previously acted as Deputy Speaker, until Sir Charles returns.