SYDNEY SENSATION
MR WILLIS AGAIN.
RESIGNS THE SPEAKERSHIP.
LEVELS CHARGES AGAINST ACTING-GOVERNOR.
[Received Last Night, 9.20 o'clock.) SYDNEY, July 22.
On the re-assembling of the Assembly, after the opening ceremony, Speaker Willis caused a simmer of excitement by announcing that he had a communication to make in regard to the office of Speaker, and the. interference in party politics by the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir William Culfen. He moved that the document be printed. After some demur on the part of the Opposition to appoint tellers, the motion was carried.
Speaker Willis thereupon, amid wild Opposition cheering, tendered his resignation of the Speakership. Mr Holman (Premier) asked for the suspension of the sitting till hj« obtained the consent of the-Governor to proceed with the election of a- new Speaker. "•■"•"' Amid cries of "Resign!" and general excitement, the House emptied, to re-assemble-at seven o'clock.
The document tabled by Mr. Willis traces the events leading up to his acceptance of th,e Speakership.,- The terms of his acceptance included the passing of a Redistribution of Bill, and the appealing to the constituencies at the earliest date practicable. Speaker Willi's points out siat the redistribution resolution had not been passed till the closing hours of last session. The House, therefore, no longer represented the constituencies, the boundaries having been altered. His obligations to Parliament were therefore discharged.
Speaker WilUs proceeded to say that the time had arrived when he must repor,t- a grave abuse of constitutional practice by Sir William Cullen. During Governor Chelmsford's absence in England, in 1911, while acting as Lieut;-Governor, Sir WiHiam Cullen officially received and conferred with members of the Opposition—persons who nineteen hours previous to meeting Sir William Cullen had disgraced the Assembly by an effort to prevent the election of a Speaker. At the conclusion of the interview, Sir Wi]d&m Oullen informed the Acsng-Premier (Mr Holman) that he would not receive the newly-chosen Speaker. This attempt to cast an indignity on Parliament was averted by the Cabinet, who informed. Sir Wiljiam Cullen-if he gave a personal affront to the Speaker they would resign. Sir-Wil-liam Cullen then invited Mr Holman to officially meet Mr Wade, and the latter proposed that the newly-chosen Speaker should be removed from office, Mr Wade undertaking to nominate one of his party to the office. Mr Holman declined. When Mr McGowen returned from England, amd resumed the Premiership, Sir William i Cullen invited him to meet Mr Wade, when a similar proposal was made, but Mr McGowen declined it. The document concludes: "The Lieut.-Governor carried with him from Parliament a partisan bias in favour of his old colleagues; He was consequently shown to be unfit to hold the Constitutional office of Administrator of a responsible Government. This partiality encouraged the Opposition in a wanton abuse of me, as Speaker. With pain my duty compels me to place on record the foregoing facts. I shall forthwith, through the Governor, report the 'con-, plaint to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. I now voluntarily vacate the chair, and without delay will tender mv resignation of the, Speakership."
NEW SPEAKER APPOINTED. THE HOUSE ADJOURNS. Received This Morning, 12.30 o'clock. SYDNEY, July 22. Mr H. D. Morten, a member of the Independent Party, was chosen as Speaker, and the Assembly adjourned.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19130723.2.28.1
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 23 July 1913, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
542SYDNEY SENSATION Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 23 July 1913, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.