Governor-General

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 219, 5 December 1927, Page 1

Governor-General

ELECTION BY THE PEOPLE? OPPOSITION LEADER’S PLEA (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Saturday. A plea for the election by the peop eof the Governor-General of Mew Zealand was entered In the House of Representatives to-day by tie Leader of the Opposition, Mr. H. E. Holland, who asked what was the use of cutting off the association between the Governor-General and Downing Street, London, if Downing Street were still to choose the Gov-ernor-General? “Tills question certainly requires mworing,” Mr. Holland said, “bemuse recent developments in New South Wales where the GovernorGeneral refused to act on the advice o( his Ministers leaves open to ques'ion what might happen in any of tie Dominions. I suggest that the ime approaches when the Dominion itself should have the right to choose its own Governor-General.” Mr. Holland declared that this was not a new question, but had been discussed in this Parliament so far back as 1877, when Sir Robert Stout had moved that the Governor of the Colony should be elected by the People of the colony. Later —in 1887 —Mr. Joyce moved in the same direction and the motion was defeated by 57 rotas to 29, such names as Sir George Grey. John Ballance, Richard John Seddon and other prominent statesmen being recorded among the Ves. In 1882 Sir George Grey introfaced an Elective Governors Bill into the House, and still later the subject had been brought before our legislators. Mr. Holland believed that this should be one of the questions for discussion at future Imperial conferences.