UPPER HOUSE IS AT FULL STRENGTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18803, 4 July 1929, Page 3

UPPER HOUSE IS AT FULL STRENGTH.

GOVERNMENT NOT LIKELY TO MAKE NEW APPOINTMENTS. (Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, July 3. It was generally expected that the new Government would make some appointments to the Legislative Council, but the session has opened, and there is no sign of a decision. The fact that this period has been reached without the appearance of fresh faces in the Council is fairly conclusive evidence that Sir Joseph Ward is practising his expressed opinion that the Council should be about half the strength of the elected Chamber, which numbers eighty, while the Council at present slightly exceeds the Prime Minister’s idea of its proper quota. There is no statutory limit to the number of Legislative Councillors, but successive Governments have adhered fairly closely to the proportion men tioned, and it is generally conceded in the lobbies that the Government does

not intend to make further appointments. At present Councillors are nominated for a five-year term, and it happens that no reappointments become due this year. Sir Heaton Rhodes, the Hon George Witty and the Hon L. M. Isitt were appointed by the Coates Government in November, 1925, and will be the first to reach the end of their term. There was a subsequent batch of appointments in June, 1926, of the Hons C. J. Carrington, J. A. Hanan and T. S. Weston, while Sir Robert Stout, on retiring from the position of Chief Justice, became a Councillor in September. 1926, and Sir James Allen, having served as High Commissioner, was appointed to the Council on his return to the Dominion in June, 1927. The only appointment by the present Government is that of Mr T. K. Sidey, who joined the new Ministry and became leader of the Upper House last December. Possibly the Government might have appointed to the Council two or three former supporters who did not contest seats at the last general election, but its chief difficulty is the number of those with exceedingly claims to consideration, therefore Sir Joseph Ward evidently is waiting patiently for an opportunity to arrive when it will be possible, without destroying the balance between the two Houses, to make a substantial number of new Legislative Councillors.