COMING SESSION

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 149, 20 March 1939, Page 8

COMING SESSION

Seating Arranged For New Members

parliament to open by commission t Appointment Of Speakers When Parliament meets in June for this year’s session, 15 of the 80 members in the House of Representatives will be making their first appearance in that Chamber. This will be the initial session of the new Parliament elected at the general election last October. As losses and gains were experienced on that occasion by both the Labour and National parties, seating accommodation will have to be arranged in the light of the changed complexion of the House, and seats for the new members have already been pencilled-in by the party whips.

In the last Parliament the National Party had 19 members who sat in the wing to the immediate left of the chair. Actually there is seating accommodation for 24 members in this section. Two Independents also sat there and three of the available seats were unoccupied, as three Nationalists had double benches to themselves_. Now that the National Party has 25 followers, it will next session appear in the Chamber as a compact group fully occupying this wing, which will accommodate all members of the party but one. The additional seat required will be in the corner left wing across the aisle. Presumably the two Independents, one of whom last session supported the Opposition and the other the Government, will also sit here. ' The remaining seats in the House will be occupied by Labour members. If precedent is followed the only woman member, Mrs. Stewart, will be given a front-bench seat." This was done in the case of the late Mrs. Elizabeth McCombs, who was the first woman to occupy a seat in the'New Zealand Parliament. Mrs. Stewart is the second. Opening By Commission. As the coming session will be the first.of this Parliament, the opening will have to be done by a Commission of five Legislative Councillors, who have been already sworn in, and can take an active part in Parliamentary business. These proceedings will be entirely formal, and will be immediately followed by the swearing-in of members by the Clerk of the House, who will administer the oath and also conduct the election of Speaker. The Speech from the Throne will be delivered by the Governor-General the following day, when there will be the customary pageantry associated with the opening of Parliament. The Speaker of the House of Representatives retains office up till and including the date of appointment of a successor. It can be taken for granted' that the present occupant of that office, Mr. Barnard, will be reappointed. Council Speaker to Retire.

Soon after the start of the session there will be a new Speaker of the Legislative Council. The procedure in this Chamber concerning the Speakership differs from that in the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the Council is appointed for a definite term, and that of the .present Speaker, Sir Walter Carncross, will expire on •July 10. ;Sir Walter said on Saturday that he would not be a candidate for reappointment as Speaker, and that after the expiry of his present term ho would take his place in the Upper House as an ordinary member of the Council. Sir Walter has served longer as Speaker of the Legislative Council than any other occupant of the position. He was first appointed to the Speakership in 1918, succeeding Sir Walter Johnston, and has held it continuously ever since.