PARLIAMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 54, 3 July 1915, Page 7

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Per Prf.9B A»socia.Vt<>n. ,Wellington, .July 2. Th« Legislative Council met at 2.H0

p.m. jj Standing orders were suspended t*> allow the following Bills to be put through all stages:—Public Revenues Amendment Bill, Public Expenditure Validation Bill, War Regulations Amendment Bill.

SPEAKER ELECTION METHODS. The Hon. Sir Francis Bell moved that standing order*! relating to the election of Speaker and Chairman of Committees be altered in the manner recommended by the report of the committee of standing orders. The principal change proposed is the abolition of the rule requiring the nomination of candidates and the institution of a system by which a printed paper containing the names of members of the Council shall be presented to each member present, who shall indicate by crosses the names of five members for whom ,he. votes. The ballot will be continued until one member has a majority, and that member will then bo declared elected. Sir Francis Bell said that as matters stood it was the duty of the Leader of the Council to nominate a candidate for the Speakership, and having nominated him to do big best to secure his election. That was a condition of affairs he did not wish continued. He was asking the Council to so amend the Standing Orders as to give the right of nomination to the Council, thereby resuming the power it possessed in 1907, when it abandoned the right of nomination and confined itself to the right of election. The'''amendments proposed, Sir Francis Bell claimed, would abolish any risk of an election of the Speaker being made a subject of party consideration. , The debate was continued by the Hons. Jones. Beehan, ' Earnshaw, Harris, and Mills, and the motion was passed. MANUFACTURE OF MUNITIONS.

The Hon. Earnsbaw moved that the Council urge the Government to take into serious consideration the need of setting up a commission of experts or a Parliamentary committee to report upon (a) the manufacture of munitions in the Dominion, and (b) the need of sending some small contingents of artisans to assist in munitions workshops in Great Britain. ~ Sir Francis Bell questioned the necessity of offering, at the present time, to manufacture munitions, and said the Government had already offered to send Home artisans. He did not think it proper to repeat the offer. The Hons. Paul, Moore, and Samuel spoke to the motion, -which was withdrawn.

The Council adjourned at 4.40 p.m.