NEW UPPER HOUSE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 852, 28 August 1933, Page 5

NEW UPPER HOUSE.

Reduction in Strength is * Planned. FIGHT FOR SEATS. (Special to the “Star.”) SYDNEY, August 17. As the Legislative Assembly meets again very shortly, and it is expected that the new Upper House will be elected next month, the matter of selecting and nominating members is engaging a great deal of attention, especially among the 118 present holders of seats in the revising chamber. As the council is to be reduced to sixty, the odds are against the return of a considerable number of the existing M.L.C.'s, even supposing that the sixty seats were all reserved for sitting members. But, though twenty of these are expected to retire, there are certain to be a number of nominations from outside the House which will complicate the whole situation. Taking a line through the voting strength of the various parties now represented in Parliament, it has been assumed that the Nationalists will be able to secure the election of thirtysix of their nominees, leaving twentyfour seats for Langites and Independents. But even if this is an accurate conjecture it does not settle the problem. at least from the standpoint of the Premier. For the Country Party has already intimated that it expects generous treatment from the U.A.P., and it has now suggested that eighteen out of the thirty-six Nationalist members should represent the primary producers. Apparently the U.A.P. is not prepared to concede so much, and it is generally expected that the U.A.P. members will not number more than twelve. Apart from this, Mr Stevens has to consider the demand for representation put forward by the women. The United Associations have sent circular letters to all members of Parliament—there will be 207 voters in the election—requesting them to support at least one from a considerable list of women prominent in public affairs. The optimistic section of the feminists hope for six women in the new Council; but the general opinion 4

is' that they are not likely to secure more than two or three seats. But beyond all this Mr Stevens has to consider that his own supporters are likely to nominate and vote.for-a number of ’ candidates who are not members of Parliament; and this introduces quite an incalculable 4 factor into the problem. A suggestion was made that the Government might put forward a “ panel ” of sixty ndminees and ask its adherents to vote for one or other on the list. But this idea has been drqpped for the moment, and it seems probable that the desire of members either to assert their own independence or to secure material advantages for themsejves and their friends may result in the nomination of a large number of candidates, which will make the general confusion even more complete. As the election is to be conducted on proportional representation lines, it will be impossible to get even an approximate idea of the result till all the preferences have been allotted, so that the only certainty about it all seems to be that the Nationalists w'ill ha-tfe a considerable majority in the new Council—and this, under the circumstances, was inevitable.