✨ Parliamentary Opening Statement
Num. 48.
1797
THE
NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE
EXTRAORDINARY.
Published by Authority.
WELLINGTON, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1931.
THE Fifth Session of the Twenty-third Parliament of New Zealand was
this day opened by the Governor-General, when His Excellency was pleased
to make the following statement of the causes of the calling of this Session of
Parliament together:—
HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, AND GENTLEMEN OF
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,—
It affords me much pleasure to meet you again at the opening of another
session of Parliament. During my visits to various parts of the Dominion
since I assumed the office of Governor-General I have been impressed by the
deep-seated loyalty of the people of this Dominion and gratified by the kindly
welcome to myself.
The deliberations on constitutional questions of the Imperial Conference
of 1930 resulted in the preparation of a draft Statute of Westminster to clarify
the constitutional position and the powers of His Majesty’s Governments in
the United Kingdom and in the Dominions. It is proposed that this Statute
should be passed by the Parliament of Westminster on the receipt of approving
resolutions from the Parliament of each Dominion, and a suitable resolution
will be placed before you for that purpose during this session. My Prime
Minister believed himself to be interpreting the general view on this question
in taking the position at the Conference that no desire existed in this Dominion
for any alteration of its present constitutional position. In view, however,
of the general desire of other Dominions for a formal recognition of alterations
in their status and of the requirement that the necessary enabling legislation
must be approved by the Parliament of each Dominion, my Ministers are of
the opinion that the best interests of the British Commonwealth of Nations
would be served by the approval of the draft Statute of Westminster, which
will in any case, notwithstanding such a resolution, have no application to this
Dominion until legislation applying it thereto has been passed by the New
Zealand Parliament.
The failure of the Imperial Conference to arrive at any effective conclusion
on the economic policy of the British Commonwealth, and the reference
A
Next Page →
PDF embedding disabled (Crown copyright)
View this page online at:
VUW Te Waharoa —
NZ Gazette 1931, No 48
NZLII —
NZ Gazette 1931, No 48
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏛️ Opening of the Fifth Session of the Twenty-third Parliament
🏛️ Governance & Central Administration25 June 1931
Parliament, Governor-General, Constitutional Questions, Statute of Westminster
- Governor-General