Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister):

It is my unpleasant duty to announce to this house that the Honourable George Black, our Speaker, has resigned by writing dated the loth January, 1935, as follows:

Sir:

I find it necessary to ask the House of Commons to allow me to retire from the chair.

In laying down the great office to which the House of Commons has called me, I trust that I can hand down its traditions unimpaired. If I have been able to discharge my official duties with any degree of success, it is because I have received the help and support of all my colleagues, for which I desire to express my sincere thanks.

Yours sincerely,

George Black.

I of course am not permitted by the rules of the house to address my remarks to any official, for as members of the House of Commons we all stand on an equality. It will therefore be necessary for us to proceed with the election of a speaker, which we shall do in due course after the formalities which have obtained through the centuries have been complied with.

A message was delivered by Major A. R. Thompson, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, as follows:

Members of the House of Commons:

His Honour, the Deputy of His Excellency the Governor General, desires the immediate attendance of this honourable house in the chamber of the honourable the Senate.

Accordingly the house went up to the Senate chamber, when the Speaker of the Senate said: Honourable Members of the Senate:

Members of the House of Commons:

I have it in command to let you know that His Excellency the Governor General does not see fit to declare the causes of his summoning the present Parliament of Canada, until the Speaker of the House of Commons shall have been chosen according to law, but this afternoon, at the hour of three-thirty o'clock in the afternoon, His Excellency will declare the causes of calling this parliament.

And the Members being returned to the Commons Chamber:

Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister) :

Mr. Beauchesne, the unfortunate circumstance to which I have already alluded renders it necessary that this Commons House of Parliament should proceed with the election of a Speaker.

I therefore, propose, seconded by Mr. Guthrie:

That, James Langstaff Bowman, member representing the electoral district of Dauphin, do take the Chair of this House as Speaker.

I need hardly remind hon. members that the office of presiding officer of this House of Commons is one of the greatest importance. It involves the discharge of great responsibilities, holding the scales of justice even between contending parties, and the administration of the rules of the house in a manner that accords with the traditions and customs of parliament. It is not difficult to maintain order in the House of Commons-it should not be. That portion of the duties of a Speaker is easy to discharge. But the administration of the rules, which are nothing more than the means by which the members of parliament have

Election oj Speaker

themselves determined that their proceedings shall be governed and their deliberations controlled, is sometimes most difficult. In moving that Mr. Bowman, the member for Dauphin, do take the chair as Speaker, I believe that we have in him a fairminded gentleman who will administer the rules of this house fairly, dispassionately, and in a manner consistent with the great traditions of this parliament and of the mother of parliaments, whose rules in part govern where ours are silent.

I will not longer detain the chamber than to express my trust that the nomination which has been made may commend itself to the members of the house as a whole and that in the discharge of his onerous duties he may have the assistance and good-will of every member of this chamber.

Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Leader of the Opposition):

I have much

pleasure in endorsing what the right hon. the Prime Minister has just said with respect to the qualifications of the hon. member for Dauphin for the position of Speaker of this house. Hon. gentlemen opposite will have observed from the applause which greeted the nomination that all hon. members on this side very cordially approve of the choice which evidently accords with the mind of the government from the fact that the Prime Minister made the motion. I am sure the hon. member for Dauphin will feel that it is quite an exceptional compliment that, having been a member of this house for but one parliament, his conduct in the course of debate and his demeanour in the house generally have been such as to inspire that unanimous regard to which expression has just been given. I can wish him nothing better than that he may fill this high office in accordance with the best of its traditions.

The Clerk of the House declared the motion carried in the affirmative, nemine contradicente, and Hon. James Langstaff Bowman, member for the electoral district of Dauphin, duly elected to the chair of the house.

Honourable Mr. Bowman was conducted from his seat in the house to the Speaker's chair by Right Hon. R. B. Bennett and Hon. Hugh Guthrie.

Mr. SPEAKER-ELECT said: Fellow members of the House of Commons, may I say that I deeply and sincerely appreciate the very flattering remarks of the Prime Minister of Canada and the kindly and generous words of the leader of the opposition.

I beg respectfully to thank hon. members of the House of Commons for the honour they have conferred upon me in unanimously electing me as their Speaker, and I can assure the house that I will use my best endeavours to discharge the duties attached to my office with justice and impartiality. I appeal to hon. gentlemen on both sides of the house when I say that I feel sensible of my inability efficiently to discharge those duties, and I ask hon. gentlemen for their earnest, kind cooperation in the preservation of the rights, privileges and duties attached to the House of Commons.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

Mr. Speaker, is it not customary for His Honour the Speaker to read prayers every day at the meeting of this house before any business is entered upon? I believe that such is in accordance with the rules of the house. The observance of this rule would appear to be especially appropriate and desirable on the first day of a new session.

Mr. SPEAKER:

I have been informed that there is not time on account of His Excellency being received at any moment. It is a question of time.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

There is no time like the present.

A message was delivered by Major A. R. Thompson, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, as follows:-

Air. Speaker, His Excellency the Governor General desires the immediate attendance of this honourable house in the chamber of the honourable the Senate.

Accordingly the house went up to the Senate chamber.

And the house being returned to the Commons chamber.

Mr. SPEAKER:

I have the honour to inform the house that during the recess notifications have been received from several members that the following vacancies had occurred in the representation namely:

Governor General's Speech

Of Hon. Peter Heenan, member for the electoral district of Kenora-Rainy River, by resignation;

Of Hon. William Anderson Black, member for the electoral district of Halifax, by decease ;

Of Walter Davy Cowan, Esquire, member for the electoral district of Long Lake, by decease;

Of Joseph Arthur Denis, Esquire, member for the electoral district of St. Denis, by

decease;

Of George Brecken Nicholson, Esquire, member for the electoral district of Algoma East, by decease.

And that new warrants were issued to the chief electoral officer to make out new writs of election for the said electoral districts respectively.