ONEROUS MINISTERIAL DUTIES RENDER IT NECESSARY TO ASK FOR RELIEF

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 258, 9 October 1931, Page 5

ONEROUS MINISTERIAL DUTIES RENDER IT NECESSARY TO ASK FOR RELIEF

Still Willing to Act as Government Representative in j Council SIR JAMES PARR APPOINTED TO THE J LEADERSHIP VALUABLE EXPERIENCE NOT LOST TO GOVERNMENT, PREMIER SAYS Press Association. —Copyright. PARLIAMENT BLDGS., To-day, THE RT. HON. G. W. FORBES announced to-day that the Governor-General had appointed Sir James Parr a member of the Legislative Council, and that it had been arranged that he should fill the position of Leader of the Council. “I should like to intimate,” Mr. Forbes said, “that when at my request the Hon. R. Masters assumed the portfolios of Educa- - tion and Industries and Commerce in the Coalition Government, he informed me that he, having regard to onerous responsibilities of his new Ministerial duties, would be unable to undertake the additional work devolving upon him as Leader of the Council, a position which in the absence of Sir T. K. Sidey in London he had filled with conspicuous ability. Mr. Masters felt himself reluctantly compelled, therefore, to ask that he be relieved of the position of Leader of the Council.”

“I acquiesced,” said Mr. Forbes, “and Sir James Parr will be entrusted with the duties of Leader.” Continuing, Mr. Forbes said: “In this appointment a well-established precedent has been followed. Sir James Parr has had considerable Ministerial experience prior to his appointment as High Commissioner. “Parliament will now be able to again have the advantage of his experience and knowledge of public affairs just as in the case’of his predecessors in the office of High Commissioner, who on their return to the Dominion were similarly appointed to the Council. “I am thinking particularly of the Hon. W. Hall Jones, Hon. R. Mac-

Kenzie and the Hon. Sir James Allen. “I may say also that Sir James Parr’s legal standing will be of spg< cial value in the Council, which} £s largely a revising chamber, “In connection with the legislation of the House of Representatives, the personnel of the Coalition Governi merit was fixed at ten members, the! appointment of Sir James Parr to the| leadership of the Council does not irw volve a seat in the Executive Council or Cabinet. “Hon. R. Masters will continue to? act as Ministerial representative yof the Government in the Council. Sir* James Parr will be sworn in and will take his seat in the Council on nexfi sitting day.”