MAYOR'S POSITION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10293, 30 May 1919, Page 5

MAYOR'S POSITION

QUESTION OF PRECEDENCE

A LEGAL OPINION OBTAINED

The following is a copy of an opinion received by the Mayor (Mr J. P. Luke, (J.-VI.G., M.P.) with regard to the relative positions of the Prime, Minister and the Mayor in respect to meetings of citizens: By long-established custom the Mayor is the chief citizen, and in all social matters in which citizens are concerned as a community it is the Mayor who is the head. The member of Parliament is the representative in Parliament of a constituency, the delimitations ,of which are fixed for the purposes of elections only. The constituency has no function whatever beyond selecting a member of the House of Representatives. Out of members of the House of Representatives His Ex. cellency the Governor selects eome individuals to be his advisers, and th© I principal adviser is the Prime Minister.

If the boundaries of his constituency happen to be co-terminous with a city, tlie member of Parliament has no status in the city outside that of a citi zen and he is subordinate in precedency to the Mayor, and the fact of his-being selected by His Excellency the Gover. nor does not alter that status in civic affairs.

.' The Prime Minister does not represent the Dominion unless specially appointed by His Majesty the King to do so. The head of the people in the Dominion is His Excellency the GovernorGeneral, and to the Governor-General and to the Governor-General _ alone should the Mayor give way in his own city. "The Government" is His Excellency the Governor-General and his advisers. If- "the Government" promote a social function the host must be the Gover-nor-General —no one else can take his place. At such a function people take precedence in ,acc'ordance with the official table.

If the Prime Minister promote a function in a city the only place where he can act as host is in his own house (official or private). If he go outside his house he is then bound to conform to the customary order of precedence. The Prime Minister has no authority to convene a meeting of the citizens of a city. He may ask his constituents to meet and hear him talk, but for any other purpose ho is not the one_ who has the right to assemble the citizens. That right belongs to the Mayor,

If the Governor-General should call a meeting of the people of the Dominion he would take the chair,.but if he wished a meeting of tho citizens of a particular city ho would ask the Mayor to call the meeting and the Mayor would take tho chair.