CLARE ELECTION WRIT.

Kumara Times, Issue 836, 5 June 1879, Page 4

CLARE ELECTION WRIT.

Sir T. Erskine May, Clerk to the House of Commons, in giving evidence on March 24 before the Select Committee appointed to consider whether since his election for County Clare Sir Bryan O’Loghlen has accepted an office or place of profit under , the Crown, and is therefore bound to vacate his seat, stated, in reply to the Home Secretary, that Sir Bryan O’Loghlen had been appointed Attorney-General to the Colony of Victoria since' his return for County Clare, and ad the person holding that office was one of, (he responsible Ministers of the Colony, the appointment was made by the Governor himself, and not by the Colonial Legislature. If the person ap- ~ pointed to (he office of Attorney-General had a seat in the Colonial Parliament he would, vacate it at the time of his appointment, but. he could ,be re-elected. The . statutes relating to these matters had beep folly* explained, but it would be as well rpr the Committee to have before them'the difference between the offices ” ‘ and • the offices “ under ” the Crown. The first class was defined in > 41st !Geo. and as the appointments weretpade by patent, ; warrant, or com- ■ mission, ,t,he persons selected did not . yaca'te 'their seats. In the case of Mr HUskisson he Was appointed by the Governor of Ceylon on the recommendation of .(he Home Government. In the present' case, however, there was no recommendation made, and the appointment was not known to the Secretary of State until long.after it was made. The position of the Governor, who had made the appointment by his own authority, was that pf a local constitutional Sovereign having responsible advisers who represented the majority of the people of ihe Colony. So far as his. own opinion of the case was concerned it appeared to him that the appoinment was not held under the conditions contemplated by the statutes, and that the holder of it was not tinder the influence of the Crown at Home. The independence of Parliament was not concerned, and the AttorneyGeneral conld not be considered as subservient to the Ministers of the Crown. From these facts, of course the Committee would form its own opinion. By Mr Forster: If officers in Barbadoes vacated their seats on election to the Home Parliament, be shonld not look upon that - fact as necessarily constituting a precedent 'for: the. present inquiry. Everything would depend upon the Constitution of the Colony. In reply to Mr O’Shaughnessy; An Act of the Victorian Parliament- which bad been approved by the Queen spoke of the office held by Sir B. O’Loghlen as an office or place under the Crown. By Sir R. Harvey.—-So far as any reference could be drawn from the A’ct of George 111. it would be that in the opinion of Parliament the appointment to an office by-a Governor having independent administrative authority would not necessitate his vacating his seat. By the Attorney-General for Ireland.—The sth section of the kct of the 41st George 111. was, in his view, inserted because it was considered necessary at the time of the union between Great Britain and Ireland to define exactly what officers would va cate seats-and what would not; and it was settled that an officer appointed by the Lord Lieutenant would be “ within the mischief of former Acts,” and that was made clear. In reply to Mr Lowther, he said 'he drew a distinction between an appointment made by a nominee of the Crpwn remaining under the Crown and one by the Crown itself. The Governor cf Victoria had (a very large discretion in the administration of the affairs of the Colon jr. Mr Berry, Prime Minister of Victoria, was also examined. On Tuesday, Mr Branston, Assistant Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, stated, in answer to the Chairman, Mr Cross, - that he had made enquiries and searched documents to ascertain cases in which gentlemen elected to sit in Parliament bad vacated their seats on being appointed to official posts in the Colonies. He bad found that in the middle of the last century Mr Selwyn had vacated his seat on being appointed Chief Registrar and Sole Examiner, or Chancery Clerk, in Barbadoes, and bad also ascertained that similar cafses had occurred in connection with Virginia, Dominica, Gibraltar, Tobago, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, and the Cape of Good Hope. In reply to the Attorney General for Ireland, he said the .case of Mr Selwyn approached nearest lo that of Sir Bryan O’Loghlen, although he could not trace the mode of his appointment. As far as his researches went, he bad been finable to find any analogous cash to that of Sir Bryan O’Loghlen. Mr William Dealtry, also of the Colonial Office, recalled, said his attention had been drawn to a section of the Constitution Act of Victoria which gave power to revoke the order in Council under which the £14,000 to responsible Ministers of tbO' Crown in the Colony was voted until varied by the revoking of the settlement.