The Feilding Star. FRIDAY, MAY 23,. 1890. The 95 Puzzle

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 142, 23 May 1890, Page 2

The Feilding Star. FRIDAY, MAY 23,. 1 890. The 95 Puzzle

«. In an article under this heading the Wanganui. Herald says :— "There should have been a general election as soon after last session as the new districts could have been defined. This is what the Opposition urged. Fancy the result of a vacancy occurring now. Suppose the hon. member for Waipa was to resign ; he is one of a House of 95, which- is to enter on its fourth session I next month. There is now no electorate ' such as returned him a few months ago, none even in name to correspond with the district which recently chose him. How would "the Speaker proceed to fill j the vacancy?" [ ..■' Well, we may inform our contemporary: The' Speaker would refer to clause 6 of the Eepreseutation 'Act, 1887, trhich provides that the new electoral districts come into existence j on the dissolution of the existing Parliament, and consequently issue a writ in the usual way, the member to be chosen by electors within the old boundaries. Clause 2 of the Eepre« sentation Acts Amendment Act; pro*; yides on the expiration by eflluxion ofc time or other sooner determination of the present General Assembly, the number of members to be thereafter, "elected to the House of Eepresenta^ tires shall be seventy-four in all, &c. It will thus be seen that the Speaker would be compelled fco issue writs to fill any vacancies made by deaths or resignations in the present Parliament, for the simple reason that the new Act is not yet in force.