THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7936, 9 January 1906, Page 5

THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

*. A curious pressman has been raking up some odd facts concerning our new Parliament:—Farmers, or persona conneoted directly or indirectly with argicultural or pastoral pursuits, 22; lawyers, 10; newspaper proprietors, 5; merchants, 5; journalists, 4; storekeepers, 2; general mechanics, 2; mechanical engineers, 2; contractors, 2; bootmakers, 2; ana one each of the following: Timber merchant, sawmiller, hotel proprietor, native interpreter, insurance canvasser, company promoter, land broker, clerk, dyer, compositor,/ mercer, stationer's assistant, carpenter, surveyor, mariner, mining engineer, school teacher, tinsmith, company director and butcher. From tbe biographical sketches published, it' appears that 33 of tbe members were born in New Zealand or arrived in the colony at a very early age, 15 in England, 12 in Scotland, 6 in Ireland, 2 in India, 2in Victoria, 2 in Tasmania, and one each of the following countries: —Germany, South Australia, Samoa, and Wales. Sixty-three members of last Parliament secured re-election, whilst of the 13 new members 11 enter Parliament for the first time. The electors of the North Island were evidently more desirous of ohauges in their representatives than those of the South, as they returned nine new members against four by the latter. There was not a single representative of the Opposition elected in the four provincial districts of Hawke'a Bay, Taranaki, Nelson Marlborough, and West Coast; 6 are from Auckland, 3 from Canterbury, 3 from Otago, 2 from Wellington, and 1 from Southland. The Government have a majority of 18 over all parties in the North Island, and the same in the South Island. A peculiar feature of the elections is that tbe Government has tbe same number of followers in the North and, South Islands—2B in each; while the Oppositionists and Independent Liberals together number 10 in each case.