YOUNGER PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 6

YOUNGER PARLIAMENT

Drop Of About 300 Years In Aggregate NEW MEMBERS’ AGES

The membership of the new House of Representatives is likely to be approximately three hundred years younger than the last Parliament, and the average age of the SO members will be close to three and three-quarter years younger. For the purpose of approximate calculation the membership of the House of Representatives was taken as it stood earlier in the year befpre the deaths of Mr. Coates, Mr. P. K. Paikea, and Sir Alfred Ransom. Any changes in the electorates where the present position is close will not affect the age average to any extent. The average age of the Labour members is 55, and of the Nationalists 51. For the eighty members (including two Independents’) the average will be approximately, 534. Considerable reductions in tbe age of the House will result from the replacement of some of the older Inembers. It or instance. Mr. Forbes, who is 74, is replaced by Mr. W. 11. Gillespie, whose age is 49. Mr. Cobbe, who was well over <O, is followed by Mr. M. H. Orani (58). Forty-fiveryear-old Mr. E. B. Corbett succeeds Mr. Wilkinson (75) for Egmont. Whereas the late Sir Alfred Ransom was 75, the new member for Pahiatua (Mr. ■K. J. Holyoake) is 39. Mr. Dickie, who retired from Patea. is 69, aud the new member, Mr. W. A. Sheat, 44. The new member for Ricearton (Mr. J. T. Watts) is 34, compared with the 70 years of the former member, Mr. Kyle. Mr. Lee Martin, who retired from Raglan. is 73. and Mr. R. Coulter, who is at present leading in that electorate, is 52. ' Mr. G. F. Sim. who displaces Mr. Moncur for Rotorua, is 32,' as against the 55 years of the ex-member. The new membe'r for Northern Maori (Mr. T. P. Paikea) is only 23. His late father, whom he follows in that electorate, was 49. The new member for .Eastern Maori (Mr T. Omana) is considerably younger than Sir Apirana Ngata (G 9 who so far has been defeated for the seat. The oldest members of the House are likely to be Mr. Atmore (Independent, Nelson) and Mr. J. IV. Munro (Labour, Dunedin North), each 73. The Minister of Works (Mr. R. Semple) is 70. and there are nineteen members in the sixties. Youngest member by some years will be Mr. Paikea, and there will be seven members in the thirties.