The Coming Session.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue XXVI, 27 June 1903, Page 1825

The Coming Session.

FORECASTS AND RUMOURS. WELLINGTON, June 18. Political quidnuncs are already forecasting the result of the Speakership in the Lower House. Mr A. R. Guinness has declared his intention of entering the lists against all-comers, and Mr McNab is spoken of as a candidate for the high office. The latter will not, I understand, be a starter for the Speakership, it is an open secret that the support of the Ministry will be accorded to Mr Guinness, consequently there is every reason for asserting that he will fill the Speaker’s chair in the new Parliament. Candidates promise to be fairly numerous for the Speakership of the Legislative Assembly. Sir Henry Miller, the present Speaker, is again coming forward, while the Hons. W. C. Walker and G. McLean arc spoken of as taking the field. Gossip says that in the event of Mr Walker receiving the honour, bis portfolio of Minister of Education will fall to Mr McNab, which arrangement Mould be acceptable to those members who clamoured in the last Parliament for the Minister of Education occupying a seat iu the Lower House. It is a well-known fact that Mr McLean has long cast covetous eyes at the Speakership, and rumour goes the length of saying that he could rely upon a fairly solid support from the Labour representatives of the Council—why, I am at a loss to imagine. Another story in circulation credits the Government with the intention of calling Sir Maurice O’Rorke to the Upper House, with the object of nominating him for the Speakership. I have good grounds for believing that Sir Maurice’s nomination would not, under such circumstances, meet with the general approval of the Council, and it is very much open to question whether the Government contemplate such a step. Another possible candidate is said to be Lieut.-Colonel Pitt, who would in many respects make an admirable

Speaker. An excellent authority assures me that the Colonel will not be an aspirant for the dignity. The Hon. J. Rigg, who was beaten by one vote on the final ballot for the Chairmanship of Committees in the Legislative Council last session, will lie a certain candidate this year, and his chances of election are particularly rosy. The Hon. W. C. Smith, who came off victor in the struggle against Mr Rigg last year, declared then that he would not seek a second term of office. Should he, however, see tit to change his mind, and once more pit his strength against Mr Rigg, the probabilities are that the latter will turn the tables upon his adversary, and easily, too. Ever since the expiration of the last Parliament, the “Post’’ has been telling its readers, at regular intervals, of an impending reconstruction of the Ministry, without, however, its prophecies being consummated. Now, on the eve of the .lew Parliament, it rakes up the subject, and states that a reconstruction will be insisted on by the Liberal party. The ‘Post’s’’ latest, phase of this reconstruction business is that the Hon. Air Dunean is tiring of Ministerial reveries, and is desirous of resigning, but that bis chief is against the proposal, on the ground that the time is not opportune. In the case of the “Post” and other Opposition papers, the wish is father to the thought.