OLDEST COMMONER DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 430, 11 August 1928, Page 9

OLDEST COMMONER DEAD

SIR JAMES AGG-GARDNER ONE SPEECH IN 25 YEARS (United P.A.—By Telegraph Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) LONDON, Thursday. Sir James Agg-Gardner, the oldesl member of the House of Commons, was found dead in bed at the Carlton Clut this morning. 1-Ie was in his 82nc year. Silence was what made Sir James Tynte Agg-Gardner a notable figure. H< sat for 25 years in the House of Commons and made never a speech. Then oi May 4, this year, he broke his silence. Said a correspondent on that occasion : ‘‘Sir James Agg-Gardner, who has beer in the House of Commons off and on foi nearly forty years since 1874, and always for his inconstant native Cheltenham, which rejected him in IS6S, 1S8( and 1906, and boasts that he has never or hardly ever, in all that time made £ speech, mitigated his departure frorr life-long virtue this afternoon by being inaudible in the speech which he read ir exposition of his Hire-Purchase Bill.” He stood for the Cheltenham seat ir 1868, but was defeated. The election was the last to be held under open voting. Or nomination day the candidates marchec to the hustings with their supporters anc their bands, and banners. After then proposers and seconders had spoken the candidates did so to the accompaniment of rival bands, cheers, hooting, hisses and volleys of eggs, dead cats and othei missiles. Then the returning officer callec for a show of hands and gave his decision which the minority challenged, demanding a poll, which took place next day.