POLITICAL PROSPECTS

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1928, Page 3

POLITICAL PROSPECTS

WHEN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLES

SOME ANTICIPATIONS

WELLINGTON, Dec. 1. Preparations are well forward for the jpening of Parliament on Tuesday. The election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives will take place on Tuesday afternoon after Parliament has been opened by commission. Jt is expected that Sir Charles Statliam will lie reappointed, although until the Labour Party caucus is held it will not be known whether that party will put forward a candidate. The Speaker and the members of the House of Representatives will attend in tiie Legislative Council chamber on Wednesday to hear his Excellency, the Governor-General read the speech from the Throne, giving the reasons for calling Parliament together. It is expected that the speech will he brief. On former occasions when an extraordinary session of Parliament has been summoned to determine the state of parties the Speech from the Throne has been long and has contained references to the legislative programme which the Government of the day had intended carrying out. The present circumstances are not strictly analogous in that there does not appear to he any doubt as to tbe position of tlie Government. Consequently, it is not anticipated that tbe Speech will say much more than that a general election of members of the House of Representatives having been held in November, Ministers have advised that a meeting of the General Assembly should ho convened at the earliest convenient opportunity to consider and determine matters concern ini' the general administration of the affairs of the Dominion, and any subjects which may appear to arise for immediate attention. Brief reference may be made in tbe Speech to the the economic and financial position of the Dominion.

It is gathered that members of the Reform party anticipate that Pnr’inment once il settles down with a no" Ministry, will run its full course, and that no good purpose would lo served, either from the party or the publicviewpoint, in the Reform members utilising their voting power to “catch out” (lie future Ward Government bv snap divisions. There may be nil occasion to demonstrate this policy before the iio-confideneo debate ends, ns the House of Representatives, on being called together by Commission on Tuesd tv. will e directed to appoint a Speaker. When Sir Charles Statliam was promised for Speaker in 1923 the Labour uirty nominated Air J. McCombs, but in the next Parliament Sir Charles Statliam was unopposed. It: is highly probable that he will again have an u neon tested appointment, as there lias been no inclination among the United or Reform members to discuss possible alternatives. Simultaneously with the Reform Parliamentary caucus, an important party meeting toolc place at the Reform headquarters, where lending members ol the executive from all parts of New Zealand considered the future plans.

The advice tendered to Reform Parliamentarians by their Wellington newspaper is that the caucus, in discussing a future policy, has no reason to make hasty decisions, been use Mr Coates and his followers are not called 'ilion to commit themselves to any course of action, beyond affording Parliament an opportunity to vote on a want of confidence mot on.