THE UPPER HOUSE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17755, 2 January 1920, Page 2

THE UPPER HOUSE.

•frTRST ELECTION IN 1922. LEGISLATI, E COUNCIL ACT TO OPERATE. The Attorney-General, Sir Francis Bell, interviewed by a Times representative, stated that the next Gazette' will contain a proclamation bringing into force the Legislative Council Act of 1'914. It was provided in the Act that it should not come into operation until January Ist, 1916, the object of this provision being to allow the general election of 1914 and the session lof 1915 to take place first, thus affording the then Opposition an opportunity of repealing the Act if they were successful at the general election of 1914. During the session of 1915 the National Government was formed, and one of the stipulations for the coalition made by the Liberals was that the Legislative Council Act should not be brought into force during the existence of the National Cabinet. In that year an Act was passed further postponing the date for the commencement of the reform; and finally, by the Legislative Council Act Amendment Act, 1918, it provided that the Act should come into force from a date to be appointed by proclamation, such date to be at least one year after publication of the proclamation in the Gazette. The object of this provision was, again, as in 1914, to allow a general election and a session of Parliament to intervene before the actual coming into operation of the Act. Recently the GovernorGeneral has by proclamation appointed the 31st day of January, 1921, as the date for the commencement of the Act, and this proclamation will appear in the first Gazette to be issued in January, 1920. The Legislative Council Act, added Sir Francis Bell, will therefore come into force on January 31st, 1921, and the first election of members of the Legislative Council will take place at the general election of 1922. The election will be held on the proportional representation system, in four large constituencies covering the whole of New Zealand. The first election •will be of 20 members only, one-half of the House. The present constitution of the Legislative Council continues in force until the coining into operation of the new Act, and therefore appointment for the term of seven years can be ntjjde to the Council until January 31st, 1921, after which date no appointments can be made.