PARLIAMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXV, Issue 10713, 3 July 1915, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. (Bu Telegraph — Press Association.) WELLINGTON. Last Nigno. The Council met at 2.30 p.m. BILLS PASSED. The Standing Orders were suspended to allow the following Bills to be put through all stages—viz., Public ißievenue Amendment, Public Expenditure Validation, War Regulations Amendment. ELECTION (XP SPEAKER. Hon. Sir H. D. Bell moved that the Standing Order relating to the Election of. Speaker and Chairman of Committees be altered in the manner recommended ,by the report of the committee of the Standing Orders The principal change proposed is the abolition of the rule requiring nomination of candidates, and the institution of a system by which a printed paper containing the names of members of the Council shall be presented to each member present, who shall judicata by crosses the names of five members for whom he votes, the bal lot to be continued until one member has a majority, and that member will be declared elected. Sir H. D. Bell said that as matters stood, it was the duty of the Leader of the Council to nominate a candidate for the speakership, and having nominated him, to do his best to secure his election. That was a condition of affairs he did not wish to see continued. He was asking the Council thereby to resume the power it possessed in 1907 v when it abandoned the right "of nomination, and confined itself to the right of election amendments. The proposal. Sir H. D. Bell claimed, would abolish any risk of the election of a Speaker being made a subject of pa.vty consideration. The debate was continued by Hons. Jones, "Beehan, Earnshaw, Harris, Mills, and the motion was passed. Hon. W. Earnshaw moved that the Council urge upon the Government to take into consideration the need for setting up a< commission of experts or a Parliamentary Committee to report upon (a) The manufacture of munitions in the Dominion, and (b) The need of sending some small contingents of artisans to" assist in munition workshops in Great Britain. Hon. Sir H. D. Bell questioned the necessity for offering at the present time to manufacture munitions, and said the Government had already offered to send home artisans. He did not think it «w>uld be proper to repeat the offer. Hons. Paul, Moor© and Sam.tiel spoke to the motion, which was withdrawn, and the Council adjourned at 4.40 o'clock.