ANOTHER RESIGNATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1622, 13 December 1912, Page 7

ANOTHER RESIGNATION.

LABOUR MAJORITY MELTS AWAY. By Telezraph—Press Association—Copyright Sydney, December 12. The Government ins learned that Mr. N. Neilsen (who was appointed by the Government as Trade Commissioner in Western America), who is somewhere in America, has posted his resignation as a member for Ynss in the Assembly to the Speaker. Efforts are being made to discover has whereabouts, with a view to inducing him to cable cancelling the letter. This development renders the political situation still more interesting, owing to the precarious majority of the Government. STORY OF MR. NIELSEN. The story of Mr. Nielsen, formerly Minister for Lands in the New South Wales Cabinet, was told recently in one of the Sydney papers. , He had not been long away on his first mission to attend a conference when he received an offer from the Federal Government to go to the Northern Territory. The State Government could not afford to lose his feat. Consequently the Federal authorities were kept waiting in suspense. It was asserted by the Minister for External Affairs that Mr. Nielsen had accepted the position; it was asserted by the State Government that he had not. After a long time the negative came. Acceptance would, of course, have meant the seat being'declared vacant, and the position of tho Government with its small majority impoi'illed. Many cablegrams passed between tho Ministers anil Mr. Nielsen. It was then reported that Mr. Nielsen agreed at the time to take the. position of Trade Commissioner on the American Pacific coast, but so that the seat would be held in the possession of tho Labour party, and the pair remain unbroken, it was not officially ratified. It was believed that an agreement was made by which the appointment would bo officially ratified should a dissolution take place. The constitutionality of this arrangement was ohallengcd by the Opposition.