A NEW LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 87, 9 October 1931, Page 8

A NEW LEADER

IN THE UPPER HOUSE

APPOINTMENT ANNOUNCED

&IR JAMES PAKE, K.C.M.G.

The appointment of Sir James Parr, K.C.M.G-., as a member of the Legislative Council was announced to-day by the Prime Minister (the Right Hon. a. W. Forbes), who also intimated that it had been arranged that Sir James should fill the position of Leader of the Council.

"I should like to state in this connection," said Mr. Forbes, "that when at my request the Hon. Mr. Masters assumed the portfolios of Education and Industries and Commerce in the Coalition Government, he informed me that, having regard to the onerous responsibilities of his new Ministerial duties, he would be unable to undertake the additional work devolving upon him as Leader of the Legislative Council, a position which last year, in the absence in London of my late colleague, the Hon. Sir Thomas Sidey, he had filled with conspicuous ability. Mr. Masters felt himself reluctantly compelled, therefore, to ask that he should be relieved of the position of Leader of the Council in order that he might be able to devote the whole of his time to his important Ministerial offices. > I acquiesced in this request, and the Hon. Sir James Parr has now been-appointed to the Council, and will be entrusted with the duties of Leader. "In this appointment," added Mr. I Forbes, "well established precedent has been followed. Sir James Parr had considerable Ministerial experience prior to being appointed High Commissioner for New Zealand in London, a position which he filled for four years. Parliament will now be able again to have the advantage of his experience and knowledge of public affairs, just as in the caso of his predecessors in the office of High Commissioner who on their retiirn, to the Dominion were similarly appointed to the Legislative Council. I am thinking particularly of the Hon. Sir William Hall Jones, the lato Hon. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, and the Hon. Sir James Allen. I may say also that Sir James Parr's legal attainments as a barrister of many years* standing will be of special value in the Council, which is largely a revising chamber. "As the personnel of the Coalition Government was fixed at ten members : the appointment of Sir James Parr to the .Leadership of the Councildoes not involve a seat in the Executive Council or in the Cabinet. Mr. Masters will continue to act as the Ministerial representative of the Government in the Council." Sir Jamfti will be sworn in and will take his seat in the Council when it meets next Thursday. < NOT UNEXPECTED. The announcement of Sir James Parr's.appointment was not altogether unexpected. Observers attached significance to his presence in Wellington yesterday afternoon and to conferences he had with' the leaders of the Government. In the afternoon Sir James called on Mr. Coates, and shortly afterwards both visited the Prime Minister, the interview lasting for the greater part of an hour. It had been anticipated before the new Cabinet was announced that the Hon. E. Masters, Deputy-Leader of the Upper House, would be promoted to the leadership of that Chamber as well as being given portfolios, and surprise was expressed when, there was no specific mention in the allocation of Ministerial duties to the Leadership of the Council. The omission was regarded as an oversight, since Mr. Masters assumed the leadership immediately after the formation of the Coalition, and was congratulated by members of the Council on the appointment. The career of the Hon. Sir James Parr holds particular interest for Hew Zealand and New Zealanders in that he was born and educated in the Dominion, and has been closely associated with the life of this country ever since. The eldest son of Mr. Reuben Parr, a pioneer farmer of the Waikato district, Sir James was born at Cambridge in 1869. In those days of early development and struggle, the_ new Leader of the Legislative Council had a very strenuous and arduous time. Passing through the various stages of education, which included a period at the Auckland Grammar School, as the result of a scholarship he won, and Auckland University, he graduated through the Ponsonby School Committee and the Auckland Education Board to a seat in Parliament as member for Eden. He was for five years Mayor of Auckland, and has also occupied a seat on the Harbour Board, the Hospital Board, the University Council, and many other local authorities in Auckland. Sir James Parr Was for six years Minister of Education, and during his period of .office he inaugurated many reforms in the education system; including Dominion grading and promo-, tion, development of Training Colleges, better and more modern school buildings, especially in relation to ventilation ana lighting, increased area of playgrounds, establishment of a departmental correspondence school for children resident >in the backblocks or in lighthouses, the exchange of teachers with Capada and Britain, the principle of junior high schools, the first of which he inaugurated before going out of office. He also commenced a new system whereby women get two years' intensive training at Wellington in children's dental work, which idea has been praised by the most eminent medical authorities in different parts of the world. Sir James was also Minister of Health for more than three years, 1920-23, Minister of Justice, and he was a member of the New Zealand Parliamentary Commission which visited the war front in 1916. I In 1926 he was appointed High Commissioner for New Zealand in London, which position he occupied until last year. Since then, prior to his return to the Dominion, he spent a busy and interesting year touring Britain and organising and delivering speeches about Empire trade matters generally. He returned to the Dominion last March, and.since then has been occupied in matters of a more or less political nature, though not a member of Parliament. Sir James, who is a lawyer by profession, practised in Auckland from 1890 until 1920, and is still a member of the firm of Parr, Blomfield, Alexander, and Burt. LABOUR'S VIEW In an interview this afternoon, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. H. E. Holland) said that Sir James Parr's appointment indicated that the Reform Party had become more than ever the dominant factor in the Coalition Government. It was undoubtedly a political sequence of the United Party's acceptance of the Reform Party's policy regarding wages and salary reductions, dismissals from the Public Service, and the cessation of work on railways under construction. In the past Sir James Parr had figured as an opponent of the fusion between the Reform and United Parties, and the country would await with interest an explanation of his change of attitude, i