NEW PRIME MINISTER

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6600, 16 May 1925, Page 5

NEW PRIME MINISTER

SIR F. BELL TO ACT. SWORN IN TO OFFICE WELLINGTON, Thursday. After the conclusion of the funeral obsequies to-day Sir Francis Bell waited on His Excellency the Gover-nor-General at Government House, and was duly sworn in as Prime Minister. The new Prime Minister, on his return to Parliament House, issued the following statement to the press:— “Mr Massey had for many years held unquestioned supremacy in the Government and in his party, within and without the walls of Parliament. Until his health recently so seriously failed that it became evident that his recovery was hopeless, no question had even arisen of succession to his place, and thenceforward, as long as his life lasted, discussion of that question was silenced by common consent. “The death of the Prime Minister, although it does not automatically terminate the actual tenure of the other members of the Government and Executive Council, creates at once the right, and indeed the duty, of the Crown in England or the representative of the Crown in the Dominion to call upon some person to take that office, the holder of which has special constitutional functions and duties.

“Until the members of that party in the House of Representatives which had placed the Ministry in power could be duly consulted and themselves choose their leader, it was not possible for His Excellency to select, of for Ministers (if their advice was asked) to name to His Excellency the member of the'party who should by the common consent of all finally take Mr Massey’s place as leader and head of the Government. His Excellency was pleased to communicate with me and to accept my advice that the surviving members of the Government should for the present be confirmed in their respective offices. His Excellency was also pleased to appoint me to be Prime Minister, and so to continue the official duties which I have recently, as on various previous occasions, been called upon to. undertake during Mr Massey’s lifetime.

“The offices of Minister for Finance and Minister for Stamp Duties were held by Mr Massey and have become vacant by his death. His Excellency has been pleased to appoint the Hon. William Nosworthy to both offices. “A meeting of those members of the House of Representatives who have supported Mr Massey’s Government during the present Parliament will be convened at a very early date, and that meeting will be asked to choose the party leader in the House, and in the country. I will then tender to His Excellency the resignation of the Government, and if His Excellency thinks'fit to then ask my advice I shall be in a position to speak confidently on behalf of the party and to name the leader to whom it is desired that the duty of forming a new Reform Government should be entrusted.”—New Zealand Herald.