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Graphic: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

GOVERNMENT – PARLIAMENT

Contents


Bibliography

The best and most recent general work on New Zealand government is K. J. Scott, The New Zealand Constitution, Oxford University Press (1962), which contains a full treatment of the constitutional role of Parliament. J. L. Robson (ed.), New Zealand, The Development of its Laws and Constitution, London, Stevens and Sons Ltd. (1954), may also be consulted. The New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (edited by G. H. Scholefield), is an official illustrated history and contains complete rolls of past members of both chambers during the period, with their electorates and dates of election, or dates of appointment, and the parliamentary offices they held. There are lists of Governors and Governors-General, Ministries, electorates and their successive representatives, dates of sessions, and similar details.

L. Lipson, The Politics of Equality, University of Chicago Press (1948), provides an account of the political background. It is somewhat out of date for this purpose, but is still the most recent general work available.

A number of articles in the journal Political Science, published by the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Victoria University of Wellington, deal with aspects of Parliament not fully covered here. The most useful are the following: Dean E. McHenry, “Broadcasting of Parliamentary Debates”, Vol. 7, No. 1; R. N. Kelson, “Voting in the New Zealand House of Representatives”, Vol. 7, No. 2; and Austin Mitchell, “The New Zealand Parliaments of 1935–60”, Vol. 13, No. 1. The last of these contains a biographical analysis of membership of the House during the period indicated. The proceedings of the House are reported verbatim in Hansard, the familiar name for the official New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, issued in bound volumes of convenient size at the end of each session with sessional index, by the Government Printer, Wellington. Other publications of importance are the Journals, the record of the decisions of the House, and the Appendices to the Journals, which contain reports to the House by the committees and other bodies, and various papers and returns.

by Reginald James Harrison, B.SC.ECON.(LOND.), B.A. (DE PAUW), PH.D.(OHIO STATE), Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Victoria University of Wellington.